"When Black Friday comes


I'll stand down by the door



When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be


Don't let it fall on me"

(Steely Dan)



I had to wait to write this----wait until I could access a news transcript-unable to believe what I 'thought I heard ' :

Police described a mob scene at a Wal-Mart on Long Island in New York, as shoppers literally stepped on a fallen worker on their way inside. According to police, a throng of shoppers had been trying to get into the store. They broke down the doors and knocked the 34-year-old man to the ground. He later died.

And across the country in California, police say two people were shot dead inside a Toys R Us store in Palm Desert. The incident appears to be unrelated to shopping.

Despite these two deadly incidents, the Black Friday ritual of vigorous shopping and spending seemed to proceed uneventfully elsewhere.

I didn't believe my ears, but when I saw it-READ it, I REALLY freaked-out !

"Despite these two deadly incidents..."

Despite these 2 deadly incidents ????

        
from : Oxford English Dictionary

 
despite

/dispit/

  • preposition in spite of.


In spite of ????....in spite of(from NY's NEWSDAY) :

Hundreds of bargain-hungry shoppers stepped on a fallen Wal-Mart worker, who died Friday morning, after the crowd knocked down the store's front doors -- and the worker -- during the "utter chaos" of a Black Friday shopping melee, Nassau County police said.

"A throng of shoppers . . . physically broke down the doors" around 5 a.m. Friday and knocked the 34-year-old part-time worker to the ground as the crowd pushed its way into the store at the Green Acres Mall, Nassau police said.

Police identified the worker as Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens.

"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau Police Det. Lt. Michael Fleming, whose squad is investigating the death. He characterized the melee as "utter chaos."...

Several employees were knocked to the ground and others were sent scurrying atop vending machines to avoid the masses.(DailyNews)

...Hundreds of shoppers who then streamed in literally stepped on the worker who later died, Fleming said.

...Though rumors circulated among the shoppers that someone had been badly injured, people ignored the Wal-Mart workers' requests that they stop shopping, move to the front of the store and exit, Cribbs said.

"They kept shopping. It's not right," Cribbs said.


"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning',"





and this from the L.A. Times :
Shots fired at Toys R Us in Palm Desert; 2 dead
at Toys R Us---at  TOYS R US ???

__despite these two deadly incidents ??

In my early radio days(daze)- I worked the Friday after Thanksgiving.   Bun-E always coordinated w/ ADBUSTERS' Kalle Lasn to be a guest + we did NO retail advertising on that day. Needless to say, those were difficult times w/ station management and some(not all!) advertisers .  Adbusters call it BUY NOTHING DAY(http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd) and the show participated. ( and,yes, we lost  some advertisers)

Will this spilling of blood, this stain on Black Friday, lead to a new ritual---a calling for the post-Thanksgiving Day Friday to be a Friends Friday or something more heart centred ?

I doubt it---this from NY's Newsday( A. A. Castillo) :

A day after a Valley Stream Wal-Mart became a national symbol for the excesses of Black Friday, shoppers yesterday returned to the store where a seasonal worker was trampled to death in a stampede.

But for the spiderweb crack on the glass front door and the car tires rolling over fallen police crime scene tape as drivers searched for parking spots, there was little outward sign of the early-morning chaos Friday, when maintenance worker Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, Queens, was killed in a crush of 2,000 shoppers eager to take advantage of sales.

More than 100 people waited outside the discount retailer near Green Acres Mall before it opened its doors at 7 a.m. to take advantage of more early sales. Several security workers helped organize the crowd without incident.

Later, a Salvation Army volunteer rang his bell outside the front door and collected donations. Women pushed carts overflowing with appliances and other big-ticket items to their cars.


Yep, despite  stampeding people knocking someone down and crushing him to death then complaining when asked to leave the store---- despite a shoot-out w/ two murders at a TOY STORE ----"...the Black Friday ritual of vigorous shopping and spending seemed to proceed uneventfully..."