So this was embarrassing for Wal-Mart, for Long Island, and — hell, sure — for the country. What will be even more fun to watch, however, will be to see who the legal system assigns the blame on this one. The mob? The store? Bush? Obama? Richard Jewell? Or, here's a novel concept, perhaps they can rule the unfortunate death as an accident, poke society in its craw, and mumble a few words about self-control and the spirit of the holidays, and wait for the next Onion-esque circumstance to unfold. Perhaps a man will leave his cell phone at a McDonald's with nude pictures of his wife, the pictures will show up online, and the man will sue McDonald's. We'll just have to wait and see.
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Article comments
1 - Terry
Well! At no time should Wal-MArt be held liable. This is the mob and only the mobs fault. I say review the tapes and arrest and convict the first 500 knuckleheads. Give them 500 hours of community service at the county morgue. Have them banned from participating or being a spectator in any event with more than 100 people and shopping at walmart for life.
P.S. Let Wal-Mart do the right thing and pay out a reasonble condolence GIFT, say about $100,000.00 (100 grand)
2 - summer
those deals aren't found online. that's why those thugs went in line because those bargains were instore only.
3 - Douglas Mays
I would say that Wal-Mart is liable. Every holiday season I see all these crowds shoving their way into big box stores across the nation. this was bound to happen sometime.
The way situations like this are controlled are to create a long line and let in groups of people at a time. Barriers, security are needed to do this. Why hasn't retail ever done this?
Wasn't anything learned in 1978 when 4 people were crushed under the same circumstances at a WHO concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinatti?
DM
4 - Dr Dreadful
Douglas,
You need to put "http://" in front of your website address in the URL box before you submit comments. If you leave it off, people will just get an error message when they click on your URL.
You should only need to do it the one time, and your browser will remember it.
Thanks,
Dr D
Assistant Comments Editor
5 - Dave Nalle
How the hell do you see this as comparable to the deaths at the Who concert in 78? There's no comparison at all. Crazy.
Dave
6 - Jet
I thought it was the Rolling Stones at Altamont?
7 - Ruzanna
an investigation will not change anything - Jdimytai Damour is already dead. even if police finds those who killed him, the incident will be called an accident and no one will be actually responsible for it.
8 - Douglas Mays
Dave (#5), it is exactly like the WHO concert!! Ever been to Riverfront Coliseum? I've seen a few concerts there in the past. I thought that they could have a trampling death every show.
It is EXACTLY the same in this respect. Riverfront Coliseum had entry doors like any big box store. You have an anxious huge crowd packed around a front door. The doors open. You have a huge push of people trying to get thru an entry way, like sand thru an hour glass. A simple crowd control situation.
How is that not exactly like the WHO concert? The only thing different was the event causing the maniacal crowd.
As a teenage concert goer here in Seattle in the late 60s and 70s I always wondered why things were handled the way they were. Taking this huge group of people and creating this line hundreds of yards long. The cops would ride horses and use them to keep this line (5 -10 people wide) of concert goers in line.
After the WHO incident, I realized why this was the method used for entry into shows in my town. A method used long before the WHO incident. This is a smart, basic method (no matter what the event is) to avoid crushing death.
After looking into the Cincinatti event, I blame the City of Cincinatti or Coliseum management or event promoters (who ever is responsible for crowd control in the the rental of Coliseum contract). So in this case, I would blame Wal-Mart. They are the unfortunate ones of any store nationwide that this type of incident occurred. It could have happened at any store.
Anyway, Dave, it is exactly like the Cincinatti WHO-> show...
DM
9 - Deano
I'm not sure how you could ever claim Wal-mart wasn't liable or responsible.
Wal-Mart has a legal responsibility to their employees as well as to their customers to provide a safe and healthy work environment.
If their expectation for a sale was hordes of shoppers, then establishing basic safe crowd control measures in order to protect their retail employees is a legal requirement - not something that would "nice to have". The reality is that there are no accidents - everything about this incident was entirely preventable and controllable. They could have laid on extra security, issued vouchers to the first arrivals, established proper line-ups and entry procedures.
They failed miserably and it cost someone their life. I think they should be held to account for it.
10 - Dr Dreadful
It was Terry Pratchett who said that the collective IQ of a mob is inversely proportional to the number of its members.
And with Wal-Mart customers, the bar isn't set all that high in the first place.
11 - El Bicho
I agree with Doug about it being like The Who in Cincy. People racing in for something they want (cheap electronics, spot close to the stage) and didn't care who got in their way.