Shoppers unfazed as man dies at Target

[Contrary1]

I think I'm ready to leave now. :cry:

"Family and friends were stunned by the loss of a West Virginia man who died while shopping on Black Friday as fellow bargain hunters reportedly walked around — and even over — the man’s body.

Family members told WSAZ-TV that 61-year-old Walter Vance of Logan County, W. Va., had become ill and collapsed while shopping for Christmas decorations inside Target in South Charleston. He later died after being taken to the hospital, family said.

Witnesses told the NBC News affiliate in Charleston, W. Wa., that shoppers walked around and even over Vance’s body.

"Where is the good Samaritan side of people?” Vance’s co-worker and friend Sue Compton told WSAZ. “How could you not notice someone was in trouble? I just don't understand if people didn't help what their reason was, other than greed because of a sale."

More: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/26/9035999-report-shoppers-unfazed-as-man-dies-at-target

[FreakinDJ]

1. Christman Spirit

[hobbit709]

2. "Bargains" are more important than people.

Gives a whole new meaning to "shop 'til you drop"

[xchrom]

3. that may well be the definitive statement on black friday. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

4. This is definitely a symptom of what's wrong with society today. n/t

[teddy51]

8. This can't even be equated to the dirty 30's, cause back then at least

people helped one another.

[teddy51]

5. That is sick, and very similar to china where that person was run over.

Another drove over her, as people walked past. Don't know where this world is headed, but it's certainly not in a positive direction.

[KamaAina]

6. "I'd step on you to buy that shoe"

:wtf:

[Poll_Blind]

7. Little difference between this and the Chinese girl hit by a truck that nobody bothered to help. nt

PB

[Initech]

9. There was a great bit of dialogue in the movie Collateral about this.

Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox are talking about a guy who gets on the MTA and dies, and nobody notices. Sad but this is the exact same deal as in the movie.

Max: First time in L.A.?
Vincent: No. Tell you the truth, whenever I'm here I can't wait to leave. It's too sprawled out, disconnected. You know? That's me. You like it?
Max: It's my home.
Vincent: 17 million people. This is got to be the fifth biggest economy in the world and nobody knows each other. I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies.
Max: Oh.
Vincent: Six hours he's riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.

So a guy dies on black Friday and nobody notices - they just keep shopping. Wow, scary how art imitates life. :wtf:

[HereSince1628]

10. All while shopping for A RELIGIOUS holiday

Black Friday is apparently not an allusion to the retailers finally making a profit...

Next comes Monster Mammon Mall Mondays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You'll be dying to get your Holiday shopping done.

[NYC_SKP]

11. As long as his corpse wasn't interfering with their Zombie Dance, I think this makes perfect sense.

One less shopper to compete with, eh?

:puke:

[WildNovember]

12. The media is always selling the story that lower-class people are vile.

[kestrel91316]

17. ANYONE who behaves like this is vile, regardless of their class.

[WildNovember]

18. Certainly if it happened as described. But there is a plethora of such stories about the lower

orders and a paucity of them about the upper. Is it because the upper classes are less vile than the lower?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. No it is called editorial choice

[WildNovember]

23. The editors print what the owners want. And we can see what they want

in trash media, trash TV and trash radio.

[kestrel91316]

27. I think it's because there are so very many lower classes and so few upper.

You know, that whole 1%/99% thing.

I suspect you knew that.

[WildNovember]

31. That might be the case if the media reported more on the nice doings of the 99%.

But the balance is otherwise, as witness the many TV shows devoted to portraying the lower orders as vile, violent, sexual, overweight, nutty & criminal creatures plus the news reports devoted to them killing/starving/beating/having sex with their children, or other people's children, or stomping on other people to get a cheap x-box, or earning too much money in their union jobs, or not being willing to work, or not being able to work correctly, or being stupid because of their public education, or getting too much welfare, or dirtying parks as they protest, or being torturers (Lnnydie English, the trailer park girl from west virginia = poster girl for abu ghraib, a crime ordered by the 1%) etc etc etc

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. This would not have happened where Latin Americans are strongly present.

Last year, during Black Friday, I went to the Mall restroom and saw a line of twenty people waiting to get in. A Latin American husband and wife were waiting at the end, trying to decide what to do. The woman feebly got up to stand up with a cane to get in line. I didn't think to tell her to just sit in the chair and I'd wheel her in, but I figured, since she was up anyways, I took her by the hand and walked around the twenty people--most of who were Latin American shoppers--and helped the woman get to an open stall. She didn't even know that there was a stall big enough to accommodate her wheel chair. Not one person in that line protested.

[in_cog_ni_to]

24. Latin Americans respect their elders.

North Americans? Not so much. They'd rather watch them starve to death, eat cat food, choose between medicine and food or buy the latest gadget while a 61 year old DIES right before their eyes.

[whatchamacallit]

14. This is the nation you get

when corporations are allowed to shape our values. USA!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. If it had happened in the Target parking lot

his body might have been repeatedly run over by the cars of mad shoppers desperate to find a good parking space.

[frebrd]

16. People used to do more "good samaritan" type things......

because it was considered the "right" way to act, thus was expected. Now it's no longer expected, people don't really seem to care, so they no longer go through the pretense of "doing the right thing".

More and more, humanity is showing it's true nature.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. He was NOT in the bargain bin

therefore not important...

And I wish I was being sarcastic.

That said there are OODDLES of Psychology papers that explain this behavior to a T. They usually involve people not answering screams for help during a crime, but they apply here.

We are a herd animal after all.

[provis99]

21. reminds me of an incident in New Orleans during Sprink Break.

There was a dead homeless guy laying out on the sidewalk on bourbon street; I watched as people just lined up right past the body to get in line for getting into a bar. Dead, rotting homeless guy lying right next to their feet.

[FarCenter]

22. An ER nurse and a parmedic tried to help him -- he wasn't totally ignored

Friends say Vance had been suffering from heart problems for years and had open heart surgery in 2000, but his death came as a shock.

An E.R. nurse who also happened to be shopping at the store tried to administer CPR. She and an off-duty paramedic tried to help Vance while he was on the floor.

From the article in the OP.

[kudzu22]

25. It's a psychological phenomenon called "diffusion of responsibility"

The more people that are present, the less likely any one of them is to help someone in need. If they were alone with the distressed person, each of them is far likelier to help. Google "Kitty Genovese" to learn of the incident that started this research.

Of course the fact there's a sale going on didn't help the matter but I wouldn't chalk up the incident entirely to shopper greed.

[Telly Savalas]

26. Kitty Genovese was murdered in 1964

so you have to go back over 50 years to find that fabled golden age when shit like this didn't happen.

[Courtesy Flush]

28. This will raise a round of cheers at the next GOP debate. nt

[Rex]

29. The American spirit.

We have become shallow and unkind. Just what the paymasters want.

[Canuckistanian]

30. You'd think they'd complain about the obstruction to their shopping carts

WTF is wrong with America these days? It's like it's collapsing from the inside.