On the day after Thanksgiving, 2008, a holiday season employee died from asphyxiation when he was trampled by some 2,000 bargain hunters smashing through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart store on what is traditionally, and in this case quite appropriately, called Black Friday. A 34-year-old, 6-foot-5, 270-pound giant, Jdimytai Damour had been sent to the vestibule as a crowd control measure because of his size. The throngs, who had had been standing outside or waiting in their cars for the 5 AM opening, and who were in competition with each other to get to the bargains, crumpled a metal portion of the door frame like an accordion as they fought their way into the store. Wal-mart employees scurried atop vending machines to avoid the masses, but Damour was knocked down and trampled while he was trying to shield a pregnant shopper.
Other employees were knocked down as they tried to rescue Damour. Nassau police and paramedics trying to save Damour were also jostled and pushed to the ground. Police and witnesses said shoppers continued to surge inside, simply stepped over Damour, and kept shopping even as the store announced it was closing because of the death. Witness Kimberly Cribbs said "all those people who got in went right on shopping after the worker was run over and was seen gasping for air." Four shoppers, including a woman eight months pregnant, were injured and treated at hospitals.
In the ensuing debate regarding whether Damour's death was a prosecutable crime, experts were divided. “In order to prosecute a homicide, you have to establish that someone caused a death," said one lawyer. "If I stepped on his arm, or chest, or leg, even if you have that on video, how are you going to establish that I caused his death?" [1]
Our moral sense finds this legal argument repugnant, and insists on calling a spade a spade: a man was unnecessarily killed as a result of obsessive consumerism in which human beings acted less than human.
Damour's death is horrific enough in itself as an example of the potential consequences of the manipulation of human nature into what film maker Adam Curtis terms "the all-consuming self.” [2] But a mind-boggling video interview with a customer after the incident raises the hypothesis of our deterioration into a subhuman species. A transcript follows, but Footnote 3 gives the link to the You Tube video, which is even more chilling to watch.
Yeah, I was here on Black Friday. Let me tell you about that guy that died. About two thousand of us [were] outside in a...nasty, cold...parking lot -- compressed into a small space....That is not a humane way to treat 2,000 people; they should have set up something like a tent for us to sit in and possibly eat pancakes....That is terrible thing to do to people....And on the inside there was a lot of good deals....He didn't get out of the way. He opened the door and he stood there. This was the one obstacle we had between us and the deal of a lifetime....They said “y'all got to leave.” Most of us said, "unh, unh” [the man gives the finger at this point]. This is Wal-Mart. I can do what I want here. Always. You seen the sign outside? It says I can do what I want here. Actually, I think it says "Low Prices Always," but I equate low prices to freedom. Eagles. Bald ones. Everywhere.... On this particular day, the most holiest of days, Black Friday, [a Wal-Mart employee is meant to help people] buy things much cheaper than normal. And he kept getting in the way....Serves him right, that's all I have to say. I bought a whole set of silverware for eight...for $7.00. If that guy hadn't been standing in my way, I could have gotten it much faster....I bought a bunch of presents for my children...[including] a Barbie...and for Susie...just... a bunch of flannel shirts; I'm pretty sure Susie is going to end up being a lesbian. She's always doing weird things; she's always sawing wood up out in the yard....For my wife I got a shotgun in the hunting section and a tent; she might also be a lesbian, I don't know -- all the girls in my family are fucked up. If that guy wasn't there I could have very easily gotten in and gotten out a little quicker.” [3]
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