I abhor prophets of doom. I'm one to think the plight of our society is rarely as bad as the Christian amateur prophets like to pontificate. Yet, I do believe an increase in the love of money drives our sad lack of respect for each other as witnessed in this recent incident from Wally World:
We're used to seeing scenes like this across the country -- people running, pushing, trying to get their hands on the great bargains. But on Friday – better known as "Black Friday" to millions upon millions of holiday shoppers across the country, a scene like this turned deadly as a mob stampeded over a security guard at a Long Island Wal-Mart.
The heavy glass and steel sliding doors were literally knocked off their hinges in the shopper-stampede-to-be-first. Then the wave of humanity caved in on defenseless Wal-Mart workers as they opened early -- 5 a.m. -- for the annual bargain hunting ritual that kicks off the morning after Thanksgiving.
"The crowd pushed so forcefully that they crashed the doors down and one of the workers from Wal-Mart was pushed to the floor as the crowd entered the store, many of them running," said Det. Lt. Michael Fleming of the Nassau County Police Department.
Cell phone video obtained by CBS 2 HD shows Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old part-time employee hired as a holiday temp. He was crushed in the onslaught and pronounced dead an hour later. As responding Nassau police and paramedics tried to save him, they were also jostled and pushed to the ground.
"The man got trampled, stomped on -- everybody banged through the doors," witness Terrence Howard said.
Witness Kimberly Cribbs said all those people who got in went right on shopping after the worker was run over.
"Oh yes, they're savages," Cribbs said.
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