CDPR Note
A note from the Center for the Development of Personal Responsibility (aka – the Loneliest Place on Earth): Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
I was going to pass on writing about the horrible scene that played out at a Long Island, NY Wal-Mart this past Black Friday. I’ve seen the pictures taken on peoples cell phones just prior to this crowd of maniacs breaking through the store doors and trampling to death a 34 year old stock clerk. I read the story about how at least four shoppers were also trampled including a woman eight months pregnant. The story was all over the internet and in newspapers complete with pictures and quotes. It was a human tragedy of epic proportions with a definite inhuman component.
But my decision to just let it go changed when I heard that New York City Councilman James Gennaro a Democrat from Fresh Meadows announce at a news conference, conveniently held on the steps of City Hall for the photo op that it was, his plans to craft a “Doorbuster Bill” that would require retailers to enact greater security measures during major sales.
A few hours later Nassau Executive Thomas Suozzi said he and the legislature’s Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro will meet to “discuss possible legislation to prevent something so tragic from happening again.” Then a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said officials will research the need for a similar local law there.
Let me get this straight. You’re telling me we need to enact a new law to prevent people from breaking through the closed doors of a retail store and trampling other human beings to death, just so they can save a few bucks on a DVD player? We need a new law for that, huh?
Councilman Gennaro has taken the lead in what will certainly be used as the main defense of the indefensible by insinuating that the store is somehow culpable because they did not have adequate security? How about passing a law that says if you are a person so completely devoid of human consideration that you would actually trample a man to death just to be the first to buy discounted merchandise you are not allowed to congregate in the general public with normal human beings? Not one that says you can do whatever remarkable act of cruelty and indifference you want and we will find a way to relieve you of the responsibility.
You can take it to the bank, there is going to be some sort of discussion regarding calling this a “Doorbuster Sale”. There will be those who will insist that the wording sends the wrong message and that the retailers need to be more sensitive. We will once again enter the realm of “New Speak” when identifying what a particular sale should be called. I can hear it now “If you call it a Doorbuster Sale then people will naturally think they can bust the door.”
Black Friday is named as such to indicate that it will allow the retailer to move their bottom line into the black and show a profit for the entire year. Of course it’s going to be a major event. What are we going to expect retailers to do when they hold a sale? Should we limit the amount of discount retailers are allowed to offer so as not to get the community too excited? If the learned council wants the retailers to increase security should that increase be on a sliding scale dependent on the amount of discount offered? Are they going to pass this law city, county or state wide? Or are they going to focus it on neighborhoods where the possibility exists that people would actually step on the dying body of another human being to be first in line.
Once again in the immediate aftermath of human failing the politico’s are lining up to blame a faceless and non-feeling business. Or more importantly a faceless and non-voting business. Rather than looking at the fact that these were human beings acting without any regard for the well being or even the very life of any other human being they place the blame on an outside source. Rather than looking at the fact that these Black Friday Doorbuster Sales happen at every mall in every state of the union without people being stomped to death, they look at this incident and say new laws need to be enacted to protect the unwary public from the uncaring businesses.
Politicians are eager to appear that they are actually doing something so they are quick to point a finger. But usually that finger misses the target completely because the one doing the pointing has no intention of identifying what the real target is. Such is the case here.
It’s not like Wal-Mart did nothing to prepare for this event. They had extra security on site and placed barricades to try to channel the crowd. This was all meant to stop people from rushing the door. But what measures can be taken when the people in the front of the line are pushed and shoved by the people behind them to the point where the door breaks open and all hell breaks loose? What good would it do having an extra 100 unarmed security guards on site? These people trampled a man to death and just kept coming. Do you think they would be afraid of getting a stern warning from the security guard? If the city wants to protect the citizens from themselves than they need to provide the police force whose job it is to do so. SWAT teams in full riot gear can assemble to make sure people act like people and not like a stampeding herd of buffalo. A security guard may be appropriate at the bakery if somebody cuts into line without a number, but not at this melee.
Let’s see how serious the city is about protecting its citizens. We will find out by how many people are identified by the security tapes and prosecuted for reckless homicide at the very least.
Or should Wal-Mart do that too?
