Black Friday, Indeed

A WalMart employee was trampled to death on Black Friday by a crowd of bargain hungry shoppers. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Times about the violence and desperation of Christmas Shoppers:

"At a Wal-Mart store in Columbus, Ohio, Nikki Nicely, 19, jumped onto a man’s back and pounded his shoulders when he tried to take a 40-inch Samsung flat-screen television to which she had laid claim. 'That’s my TV!' Ms. Nicely shouted. 'That’s my TV!'

A police officer and security guard intervened, but not before Ms. Nicely took an elbow in the face. In the end, she was the one with the $798 television, marked down from $1,000. 'That’s right,' she cried as her adversary walked away. 'This here is my TV!'

Charisma Booker, also on the hunt for a television, said she had been shopping at Wal-Mart every Black Friday for nearly a decade. 'There are fewer people here this year, but they’re more aggressive,” she said. 'I’ve never seen anybody fight like this. This is crazy.'"