The Dangers of Black Friday

The happiest time of the year. Who knew that the holidays could be so dangerous? Between fights, ginormous crowds rampaging through stores, and customers fighting with management for lower prices, this time of year brings out the evil within everyone and it comes out as scary behavior towards the wanting of inanimate objects. There are many large news companies that have given their opinions on this situation such as the New York Post. Hearing the opinion of this huge news station really helped to make the dangers of Black Friday very obvious. 

The statistics are too much to take in. According to the New York Post, “Between 2006 and 2018, according to the Hustle, 44 Black Friday incidents in America left 11 dead and 109 injured — including one man who brought home a shattered hip after being shoved into a shelf of cut-rate presents.” There are 120 numbers too many. No one should ever get hurt Christmas shopping for loved ones. That is no way to spend the holidays, with a broken hip, injury, or death just trying to pick out a gift. 

Taking a look at this worldwide problem from a store’s point of view, the New York Post concluded that “In 2018, stores raked in $6.2 billion in the single day…” Stores are not going to do anything to put an end to that because of the insane amount of money that is pouring in. They need to look at the safety risks that these customers are dealing with because of the lack of rules within the stores during this time of the year. Entering and exiting the stores is a free-for-all, and the checkout lines are overtaken by customers attacking cashiers with hundreds of items. There is only one way to solve this, and that would be having police officers guarding the area and rules on certain amounts of people allowed in the store at a time. 

If Black Friday shopping is going to continue on for years to come, we must have strong security and guidelines to how it must be run. We can’t afford anymore injuries or casualties because of items at a store. That is no reason for hurt and pain, especially around the holidays. We can help this situation when shopping by talking to local police officers about stopping in at stores to keep an eye on things, report suspicious activity right away, and try to keep a calm attitude when shopping, entering, and exiting stores after the rush has ended. Stay safe and know when enough shopping is enough! Happy Holidays! 

The first dark day

“In 2008, a Walmart employee on Long Island was trampled to death when more than 2,000 enthusiastic gift-grabbers busted through the store’s front door and could not be contained. This marks Black Friday’s first stampede fatality.”

They didn’t make it past the parking lot

“In 2016, two people were shot in the parking lot of a South Jersey shopping mall. One died and the other was injured. But it was far from the only parking lot shoot-up. Four years earlier, two people in Tallahassee, Florida, were shot over a parking spot. Adding insult to injury, the victims never even made it into the mall for Black Friday savings.”

The pepper spray incident

“There were no deaths, but 20 were injured in North Carolina when an off-duty cop reportedly began pepper-spraying shoppers in 2011, NBC News reported. “He was raining it over the whole crowd,” a witness said. “Some of it got my granddaughter in her face and eyes, and she had to go to the emergency room because she is asthmatic.” Fellow cops seemingly covered for him by describing the “raining” as a “puff of pepper spray.”

Gun crazy in Texas

“Judging by the outcome of a Walmart parking-lot argument in San Antonio, Black Friday is the wrong day to be a good Samaritan. According to The Washington Post, in 2016, Isidro Zarate saw a man pulling a woman’s hair. He told the guy to “take your hands off her.” The hair-puller complied, only to reach for his gun and murder Zarate.”

The wrong look

“One final lesson for those brave enough to shop on Black Friday: Keep your eyes to yourself. Following this advice might have prevented a man from being shot at a mall in Memphis, Tennessee. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a shopper last year had the temerity to check out an “attractive woman.” Outside the mall, he got knocked out and shot by the woman’s beau. An overexcited spectator then pulled out his own gun and began shooting. The paper reported that it was unclear if the man was shooting at the brawlers or just into the air.”