Public Health and Safety: Black Friday Edition

Yesterday was Black Friday. We all know what that means: streams of shoppers mobbing department stores for the "best deals" of the holiday season. This is the mark when stores no longer operate in the red (as they do much of the year) and finally turn over into the black, meaning they begin to profit and see returns for their past year's investments. What it means for shoppers? It means the consumer gets a great deal on an item rarely of necessity and more often of simple want. But over the last few years, the consumer bargains for much more in waiting on line outside the store in the (sometimes) bitter cold. A disturbing trend of violence has marred the past 3 years of Black Friday shopping.

Reports this year, at least the ones so far garnering national attention, have included an incident where a woman in an affluent neighborhood pepper sprayed 20 people in an attempt to get an upper hand on the purchase of an electronic device at a Walmart, and a more serious incident near San Francisco where a family was robbed of their purchases at gunpoint shortly after leaving a store Thursday night. Luckily, the shooting was not fatal and the man remains in serious, but stable condition. There have been several reports of other violence throughout the country, including this display of sociopathic tendencies resulting in a near-riot over a $2 waffle maker. (I will spare you the video, unless you really want to see it. Frankly, this discourages me on so many levels.) As despicable as these stories are, they are not the first time we have heard of violence on Black Friday.

As some of you may recall, in 2008, a Walmart employee was killed at a Long Island store when the fevered hoard burst through the doors at 5am. The man, and several customers, were knocked to the floor. When the wildebeests had passed, the man was dead and several others were injured, including a 8-months pregnant woman. After this incident, stores began taking precautions to minimize the threat to employees that their "deals" bring to the store. But that has not stopped the string of violent accounts over the years between customers vying for that coveted XBox, video game, or friggin' waffle maker(!).

And why is this allowed? A relevant question, especially when gleaned through the lens of Occupy Wall Street. Well, partly there seems to be a contingent of the population that feels businesses have the right to sell such "door busters" if it brings customers into the store, regardless of potential damages and injuries. Then you have this essay, which tries to rationalize that it's the economy warranting such behavior, attempting to argue that if people weren't all so poor they wouldn't need to fight (or kill) one another over TVs and video games. The problem with this clearly unreasonable, in no way thought out piece is that TVs, video games, waffle makers, etc. are not necessities. They do not belong in every home. He attempts to pardon businesses and people from any moral sense because, "Hey, times are tough. It's okay to act like neaderthals." What has the base of our moral value system become? On one hand, we have people camping outside for days to shop for a "bargain" they can get any other time of the year (Shh, retailers do not want you to know that). They are willing to fight and possibly kill, whether intentionally or not, to procure a gift. This is all okay. On another hand, we have a group of protesters who camped out for weeks to stand up against the forces which put normally rational people in situations where they might kill for a Playstation, or a pair of shoes. This, however, is not.

So I ask again, a question I've been asking a lot over the last two weeks, what really constitutes a threat to public health and safety in this country? Clearly, in the pursuit of profit, public health and safety is being ignored. Then, when a group of protesters of Occupy Wall Street demands accountability over the motives and consequences of that profit-hunger they are the ones put in jail. America, you are fighting the wrong battles. You are shackled to a media-induced life of greed and materialism. You are pitted against one another, you fight, and are ready to kill one another for scraps, for the meatless bone thrown off by the gluttonous plutocracy.