Customers injured in the black friday event are sueing

[Cogman]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CR...mpling.suit/index.html

What on earth are these people thinking. "Humm, A stranger beats me up. Im walking into a walmart. Who should I blame? Clearly it is walmarts fault?"

On the bright side, maybe now walmart can legally put in electric fences and arm their employees with cattle prods.

Do you think that walmart could counter sue these people for actively participating in mass-hysteria or being an accomplice to the death of one of their employees?

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: Cogman
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CR...mpling.suit/index.html

What on earth are these people thinking. "Humm, A stranger beats me up. Im walking into a walmart. Who should I blame? Clearly it is walmarts fault?"

On the bright side, maybe now walmart can legally put in electric fences and arm their employees with cattle prods.

Do you think that walmart could counter sue these people for actively participating in mass-hysteria or being an accomplice to the death of one of their employees?

Who do you *think* was responsible for providing crowd management for safety?

Your analogy to a mugging is ridiculous. Crowd management != mugger crime.

You seem to have no clue about how crowd problems like this happen, where there's no 'intent' to stomp people to death, there's simply danger if the crowd isn't spread out.

The crowd isn't in charge of crowd control, to bring their own bullhorns and set up the system. Each person may play some tiny role by being there, but it's mainly Wal-Mart.

 

[SneakyStuff]

They should have known what they were getting into. A reasonable person understands the risk associated with waiting in the middle of a mob of people all trying to get into the same store no? I still can't believe that employee died though, people are ravenous for savings apparantly...

 

[Cogman]

I doubt walmart could have done anything differently to prevent the crowd from rushing in like they did. The fact that they pretty much beat down the door (and the guy opening it) shows what kind of mob mentality these lunatics had. Its tragic that people get injured because of the stupidity of others, but walmart isn't the one to blame for this.

 

[DealMonkey]

You know, every year there's some incident like this at Wal-Mart. This may have been the first death, but there are always injuries and frankly, you'd think they'd have learned their lesson about security on BF by now. But perhaps a nice hefty lawsuit might help them learn what they should have on their own.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I said it before, and I'll say it again. On Black Friday, Wal-Mart should open its doors, let everyone in, lock the doors, and gas the lot of them. There is absolutely no excuse for the horridness exhibited by these worthless human beings who are literally willing to kill to save a few bucks. Fuck 'em.

Just so we're clear, I am being facetious when I say we should just gas them all, but clearly something is horribly wrong with some of these people.

 

[JSt0rm]

walmart has been sued in the past because their parking lots are unsafe and they have done nothing to make them safer. walmart is an evil evil company. I don't see how this is any different then those cases.

Text

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: Cogman
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CR...mpling.suit/index.html

What on earth are these people thinking. "Humm, A stranger beats me up. Im walking into a walmart. Who should I blame? Clearly it is walmarts fault?"

On the bright side, maybe now walmart can legally put in electric fences and arm their employees with cattle prods.

Do you think that walmart could counter sue these people for actively participating in mass-hysteria or being an accomplice to the death of one of their employees?

Who do you *think* was responsible for providing crowd management for safety?

Your analogy to a mugging is ridiculous. Crowd management != mugger crime.

You seem to have no clue about how crowd problems like this happen, where there's no 'intent' to stomp people to death, there's simply danger if the crowd isn't spread out.

The crowd isn't in charge of crowd control, to bring their own bullhorns and set up the system. Each person may play some tiny role by being there, but it's mainly Wal-Mart.

What exactly could they do to prevent people from rushing the door? They can have everyone line up, and they can try to let them in one by one, but as soon as the doors open the assholes in the back are going to rush the door.

 

[winnar111]

I guess they could arm their security force with tasers to properly subdue a crowd....of course, they would be sued over that too. Oh, and since you really can't see someone getting trampled easily in the middle of a crowd, they could get satellite cameras too.

Asshole lawyers.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: Cogman
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CR...mpling.suit/index.html

What on earth are these people thinking. "Humm, A stranger beats me up. Im walking into a walmart. Who should I blame? Clearly it is walmarts fault?"

On the bright side, maybe now walmart can legally put in electric fences and arm their employees with cattle prods.

Do you think that walmart could counter sue these people for actively participating in mass-hysteria or being an accomplice to the death of one of their employees?

Who do you *think* was responsible for providing crowd management for safety?

Your analogy to a mugging is ridiculous. Crowd management != mugger crime.

You seem to have no clue about how crowd problems like this happen, where there's no 'intent' to stomp people to death, there's simply danger if the crowd isn't spread out.

The crowd isn't in charge of crowd control, to bring their own bullhorns and set up the system. Each person may play some tiny role by being there, but it's mainly Wal-Mart.

WTF, people know these crowds are animals. So now Walmart needs to hire Blackwater on Black Friday? Get real! I have sympathy for somebody who gets decked trying to buy a cheap hair dryer, but it's not like they didn't expect to have to fight tooth and nail like mother fvcking beasts at a carcus, is it?

I said it before, and I'll say it again. On Black Friday, Wal-Mart should open its doors, let everyone in, lock the doors, and gas the lot of them. There is absolutely no excuse for the horridness exhibited by these worthless human beings who are literally willing to kill to save a few bucks. Fuck 'em.

Just so we're clear, I am being facetious when I say we should just gas them all, but clearly something is horribly wrong with some of these people.

Glad you caveated. I thought gasing them was over the top. More prudent would be to loose thousands of rabid rats instead or have a tank drive around the store!

 

[RightIsWrong]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: Cogman
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CR...mpling.suit/index.html

What on earth are these people thinking. "Humm, A stranger beats me up. Im walking into a walmart. Who should I blame? Clearly it is walmarts fault?"

On the bright side, maybe now walmart can legally put in electric fences and arm their employees with cattle prods.

Do you think that walmart could counter sue these people for actively participating in mass-hysteria or being an accomplice to the death of one of their employees?

Who do you *think* was responsible for providing crowd management for safety?

Your analogy to a mugging is ridiculous. Crowd management != mugger crime.

You seem to have no clue about how crowd problems like this happen, where there's no 'intent' to stomp people to death, there's simply danger if the crowd isn't spread out.

The crowd isn't in charge of crowd control, to bring their own bullhorns and set up the system. Each person may play some tiny role by being there, but it's mainly Wal-Mart.

What exactly could they do to prevent people from rushing the door? They can have everyone line up, and they can try to let them in one by one, but as soon as the doors open the assholes in the back are going to rush the door.

They could do what other stores do. They put up some form of barrier that keeps people in a line and pass out tickets for the high value items. Or they could just let in people in groups of 20-30 again based on where they are in some line.

Are you noticing the theme here? Wal-mart is the only major retailer that I am aware of that does nothing in the way of trying to organize the crowds to make it a more orderly or less dangerous mob-like atmosphere. They deserve to be sued b/c they continue to allow this year after year.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

wow, I knew the hatred of walmart was pretty bad here but some of you are just out right out of your mind. At best these people could go after someone for assult but good luck proving it. I'm quite sick of these types of morans suing a store because they got hurt. I can see if if there was something in the store that caused injury but these injuries were caused by other people - not Walmart.

 

[RightIsWrong]

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
wow, I knew the hatred of walmart was pretty bad here but some of you are just out right out of your mind. At best these people could go after someone for assult but good luck proving it. I'm quite sick of these types of morans suing a store because they got hurt. I can see if if there was something in the store that caused injury but these injuries were caused by other people - not Walmart.

In Wal-mart's infinite greed, they advertised that they would match any other store's Black Friday ads while offering their own. They created an atmosphere where the crowds were larger than on any normal shopping day all by themselves.

They could have not offered any sales and they would have been assured that they would not have had any incidents at their locations.

 

[piasabird]

All employers are responsible for providing a safe workplace. This would be a OSHA reportable death. This is a very serious case. Walmart the employer told these people to go unlock the door and they were hurt on the job while employed so Walmart is to blame at least partially. Walmart could have put some guards out Front. Walmart could have also have built into the front doors some metal shutters that come down and lock. If they used a barrier like that, then the employees would have been safe. Even some kind of stacked up pallets would have worked as a temporary barier.

I think that the cops should have arrested every person in the store and taken them all down and locked them up and charged them all with Murder, and kept them there till they worked out who broke down the door. If people are part of a mob they all deserve to be executed for the crime.

Since Wal-mart is not sufficiently remorseful for this case then maybe the courts need to make an example for other employers, that they better take better care of their employees welfare. I see nothing wrong with a multi-million dollar settlement.

 

[EagleKeeper]

So you are asking for them to change their business model based on people's stupidity.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: RightIsWrong

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
wow, I knew the hatred of walmart was pretty bad here but some of you are just out right out of your mind. At best these people could go after someone for assult but good luck proving it. I'm quite sick of these types of morans suing a store because they got hurt. I can see if if there was something in the store that caused injury but these injuries were caused by other people - not Walmart.

In Wal-mart's infinite greed, they advertised that they would match any other store's Black Friday ads while offering their own. They created an atmosphere where the crowds were larger than on any normal shopping day all by themselves.

They could have not offered any sales and they would have been assured that they would not have had any incidents at their locations.

:laugh: so any store that has a sale, prints an ad, and/or price matches to get people into the store are thereby responsible for disorderly customers?

 

[MovingTarget]

I don't see the difference between Walmart having to provide crowd control on BF and any other organization on their own property hosting a large event. If you open your establishment to the public for any reason and it is reasonable to expect a shitton (2.5 metric assloads...the SI people need to get on this) of people to attend, they should be required to provide reasonable crowd control, or close their property to the general public. Examples of this include concerts, sporting events/trade shows, etc. The people overseeing the event are responsible for providing reasonable crowd control, not the crowd itself. That doesn't make them solely responsible for the actions of individuals in the crowd, though...

 

[bamx2]

Great . I think that the Black Friday B&M frenzy needs to stop .

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: RightIsWrong
They could do what other stores do. They put up some form of barrier that keeps people in a line and pass out tickets for the high value items. Or they could just let in people in groups of 20-30 again based on where they are in some line.

Are you noticing the theme here? Wal-mart is the only major retailer that I am aware of that does nothing in the way of trying to organize the crowds to make it a more orderly or less dangerous mob-like atmosphere. They deserve to be sued b/c they continue to allow this year after year.

Poverty breeds violence, and Wal-Mart caters to the poor. Ergo they cater to the violent. You should go to the same store next year and stand outside between that mob and the door.

 

[DealMonkey]

The solution is simple: pass out random wrist bands to people waiting outside the store. Then randomly select numbers and allow small amounts of people into the store in the order they are called. Establish some basic security - a few extra guards would suffice.

Jesus fucking christ, Wal-Mart is a multi-bazillion dollar corporation and here I am, some average joe, solving their problems on the interwebs for free.

It's not that difficult people, really it's not.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Let's not forget, this actually cost Wal-Mart a bundle; the cops locked down the store and made everyone leave, which I'm sure cost Wal-Mart a shit-ton of money. That alone should prompt the company to take action to better protect both the employees and the customers from events like these; they actually do affect Wal-Mart's bottom line. That said, the executives should have had much better foresight and planning in terms of crowd control to prevent this from happening in the first place.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: Cogman
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CR...mpling.suit/index.html

What on earth are these people thinking. "Humm, A stranger beats me up. Im walking into a walmart. Who should I blame? Clearly it is walmarts fault?"

On the bright side, maybe now walmart can legally put in electric fences and arm their employees with cattle prods.

Do you think that walmart could counter sue these people for actively participating in mass-hysteria or being an accomplice to the death of one of their employees?

Who do you *think* was responsible for providing crowd management for safety?

Your analogy to a mugging is ridiculous. Crowd management != mugger crime.

You seem to have no clue about how crowd problems like this happen, where there's no 'intent' to stomp people to death, there's simply danger if the crowd isn't spread out.

The crowd isn't in charge of crowd control, to bring their own bullhorns and set up the system. Each person may play some tiny role by being there, but it's mainly Wal-Mart.

What exactly could they do to prevent people from rushing the door? They can have everyone line up, and they can try to let them in one by one, but as soon as the doors open the assholes in the back are going to rush the door.

Either make it safe or cancel the event.

 

[mizzou]

Just wait for State vs. Etc. ETc. Etc. 100 names for 1st degree murder

Motive: Tickle me Elmo

Everyone who's foot stepped on that poor mans chest should go to prison for life

 

[winnar111]

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
The solution is simple: pass out random wrist bands to people waiting outside the store. Then randomly select numbers and allow small amounts of people into the store in the order they are called. Establish some basic security - a few extra guards would suffice.

Jesus fucking christ, Wal-Mart is a multi-bazillion dollar corporation and here I am, some average joe, solving their problems on the interwebs for free.

It's not that difficult people, really it's not.

And what are a few extra guards supposed to do against the mob?

 

[cubby1223]

We are so spoiled in the U.S. The lefties like to talk up about how rich the rich are, how poor the poor are, and what a terrible country we have become. These stories just remind us exactly how wealthy we are. Sure the rest of the world has mobs and people racing for things, trampling over others in their way - but those in other country are fighting over things like food & water. We trample other people for big-screen plasma tvs.


You can't sue people who cannot be identified by the shoddy security cameras. And you can't expect those trampled to bear the full medical costs. But suing the store could force the retail industry to rethink black friday safety.