Buckeye, AZ grandpa beaten by police when he tried to protect grandson from trampling |
By Will Collette
Wal-Mart had an especially bloody opening day to the holiday shopping season with violent incidents at almost 20 stores, including Providence . Desperate times led to desperate measures as Wal-Mart’s Christmas frenzy led many shoppers to turn on each other.
As we catalog the incidents, I can’t help but wonder at what this says about our culture. It certainly suggests re-thinking the “tradition” of pressuring working families into spending more than they can afford on stuff nobody really needs.
The alternatives: (a) Buy Nothing; (b) buy from small, local merchants, craftspeople, farmers; (c) donate to charity in lieu of presents or (d) make your presents yourself.
Or you can go to Wal-Mart and deal with this….
UPDATE: Porter Ranch, CA. In the now famous incident where a woman who was just a tad over-anxious to grab a Wal-Mart bargain and pepper-sprayed the shoppers all around her (injuring 20), CBS news has just reported that she has surrendered herself to police.
Another Grandpa arrested for trying to protect grand daughter from being pepper sprayed by police in North Carolina |
AZ grandpa's mug shot after being revived and cleaned up |
Buckeye, Arizona . A grandfather was bloodied and beaten to the ground by police for suspected shoplifting to the boos and jeers of the crowd. According to one version of events, there was a mass melee over electronic games in the Wal-Mart store and the man’s grandson was knocked down and trampled. The man allegedly tucked a game box in his belt to free his hands to assist the child, but that was interpreted as stealing by local police working a detail at the store. The grandfather was unconscious and covered with blood. After he was revived, he was arrested for shoplifting and resisting arrest.
Mugshot of man tasered and arrested at Florence, AL Wal-Mart |
Milford, CT. Police used a stun gun to break up a fight over video games, zapping shopper Brian Shellnutt (interesting name) who was subsequently arrested.
Bentonville, Arkansas and Neosho, MO. Two separate bomb threats at Wal-Mart stores caused customer evacuations.
Wal-Mart calls all of these incidents “unfortunate,” “regrettable,” blah, blah, blah. And yes, Wal-Mart is a huge chain with lots of stores, so maybe just based on the Law of Large Numbers, you’d expect a certain amount of chaos in and around them. Not to mention they were offering deals that many desperate shoppers may have found irresistible – thus the brawls and riots and pepper spray to get the goods.
But that doesn’t make the spectacle any less disgusting. Wal-Mart is a company that has propelled the end of much of American manufacturing by flooding the US market with cheap foreign sweatshop-made goods.
Wal-Mart has destroyed untold numbers of small businesses. Wal-Mart has dragged the US labor market down with its low wage, lousy benefits jobs.
For the sake of short-term savings for Wal-Mart merchandise, our consumer society has traded its long-term wealth, if not its soul.
There are so many reasons why you should not shop at Wal-Mart. Ever. And it’s not just that you might get beaten, shot, gassed, trampled, tasered, stabbed or arrested.