Black Friday turned into hand to hand combat.

[GG]

By msnbc.com staff and NBC News
Updated 5:55 p.m. ET: If you think the Black Friday crowds were big at your local stores, you should have tried shopping in New York City, where an estimated 10,000 people were waiting when the Macy's flagship store opened at midnight.
Many retailers opened early across the country to take advantage of buyers' pent-up demand for the annual deals, which NBC News' Janel Klein reported can make up to 40 percent of a store's profits for the entire year.

Black Friday mayhem: Shootings, pepper spray

"I thought I was going to get run over," Lindsay O'Rourke said after shopping at a Target store in Tulsa, Okla.

"I was holding onto my aunt so I wouldn't get run over," she told NBC station KJRH.

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/25/9020234-black-friday-crowds-it-was-insane-it-was-crazy

Happy to report I did not leave the house until 6pm this evening and then it was to drive 6 blocks to Sonny's on 86th street to buy beer.

[Hoss]

I live with my mother (no, it's because I help take care of her; she's partially paralyzed since 1984 from a subdural hematoma and divorced my dad after he went through some bi-polar and schizophrenia issues) so I had a planned hockey game tonight downtown, but thought I'd stop at the Walmart 'on the hill' to get a few items she'd asked for.  I was only going to do so if it wasn't insane.  Got there shortly after 10 and it looked like just about any other Friday night 10 pm I've ever been there.  I guess everyone got out so early today they're either passed out asleep, or passed out drunk or out drinking...either way, it was pretty easy for me to pick up a few items after the game tonight.

[GG]

Here are more links to the craziness

http://www.twitvid.com/QM7T7

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/two_women_injured_man_charged_after_Pk0fdflluOxOpfdedSpHaM

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/11/25/shoppers-pack-monroeville-mall-on-black-friday/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/at-wal-mart-pepper-spray-attack-triggered-chaos-screaming.html

[patric]

And the pepper spray is flowing freer every day:

Chaos erupted at Walmart in Kinston on Black Friday. An off-duty police officer ended up using pepper spray on a crowd and a former Kinston police officer was arrested.
A video of the incident has been posted on YouTube. People are seen covering their noses and mouths, and then you see police officers handcuffing a man who is bent over then leading him away.

WITN spoke with that man, 58-year-old Gordon Jackson, who is a former Kinston police officer and served 20 years in the army.
Jackson told WITN that all he did was say to an officer they probably shouldn't have sprayed the pepper spray with so many kids and elderly folks around.
Jackson says that's when he was asked to leave and when he turned to do so, he says officers threw him on merchandise and cuffed him.
Jackson was charged with disorderly conduct. He says he will fight the charge in court because he didn't do anything wrong. His court date is set for January 23rd.
According to Kinston police, Walmart hired off duty officers to help with Black Friday security. Police say an officer was trying to quell a disturbance and make an arrest, and he used pepper spray.
Angel Bunting tells WITN she was right there when the pepper spray was used. Bunting says people were standing in line when a man fell onto a display. She believes it was an accident, but security thought there was a fight. Bunting says 20 people, including children, were affected by the pepper spray.

http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/134483333.html
The video: 

[patric]

And in Arizona:

'They grabbed the guy, body planted him into the ground -- face shatters on concrete. That's a hard concrete floor inside Walmart,' Skylar Stone, who said he witnessed the entire exchange, told Fox 10 in Phoenix. Police counter witnesses statements and say Mr Newman resisted arrest and began to flail when an officer tried to handcuff him.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066554/Body-slammed-grandfather-trying-save-grandson-8-trampled-frenzied-mob-Walmart-shoppers.html

(CNN) -- An Arizona man lay handcuffed and non-responsive on the floor of a Walmart on Black Friday, as his emotional grandson stood nearby.

The grandson, Nicholas Nava, told CNN affiliate KNXV that Newman had grabbed one video game and put it under his shirt so that others jostling for the game didn't take it from him. One person alerted a police officer, who then approached Newman.
David Chadd, a CNN iReporter from Las Vegas, was among those shopping for video games set up in the Walmart's grocery section in a mass of people. He said Newman "was not resisting" arrest as he was led away from the crowd by a police officer.
The officer, Chadd said, then suddenly hooked the suspect around the leg, grabbed him and "slammed him face first into the ground."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/25/justice/arizona-walmart-arrest/

[nathanm]

The grandson, Nicholas Nava, told CNN affiliate KNXV that Newman had grabbed one video game and put it under his shirt so that others jostling for the game didn't take it from him. One person alerted a police officer, who then approached Newman.

I didn't realize that putting an item under your shirt or in your pocket was a crime. (Walking out without paying for the item obviously is)

Remind me never to go to Wal-Mart. Freakin' dangerous apparently. Either get pepper sprayed by some person all hot and bothered over a freakin' Xbox or get arrested for not committing a crime. Sounds like a great shopping experience.

Edited to add: Oh, in Arizona it is. So is putting it in a bag, so don't go shopping with those reusable bags.

B. A person is presumed to have the necessary culpable mental state pursuant to subsection A of this section if the person does either of the following:

1. Knowingly conceals on himself or another person unpurchased merchandise of any mercantile establishment while within the mercantile establishment.

Seems a little vague, though. Is the presumption rebuttable or not at trial?

[guido911]

I live with my mother (no, it's because I help take care of her; she's partially paralyzed since 1984 from a subdural hematoma

+1.

Mods. Can we have a specific "Police Suck" category for patric?

[guido911]

And in Arizona:

'They grabbed the guy, body planted him into the ground -- face shatters on concrete. That's a hard concrete floor inside Walmart,' Skylar Stone, who said he witnessed the entire exchange, told Fox 10 in Phoenix. Police counter witnesses statements and say Mr Newman resisted arrest and began to flail when an officer tried to handcuff him.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066554/Body-slammed-grandfather-trying-save-grandson-8-trampled-frenzied-mob-Walmart-shoppers.html

(CNN) -- An Arizona man lay handcuffed and non-responsive on the floor of a Walmart on Black Friday, as his emotional grandson stood nearby.

The grandson, Nicholas Nava, told CNN affiliate KNXV that Newman had grabbed one video game and put it under his shirt so that others jostling for the game didn't take it from him. One person alerted a police officer, who then approached Newman.
David Chadd, a CNN iReporter from Las Vegas, was among those shopping for video games set up in the Walmart's grocery section in a mass of people. He said Newman "was not resisting" arrest as he was led away from the crowd by a police officer.
The officer, Chadd said, then suddenly hooked the suspect around the leg, grabbed him and "slammed him face first into the ground."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/25/justice/arizona-walmart-arrest/

This sort of thing happens to me all the time. I walk into a department store, minding my own business, and the police just charge and kick my donkey. Show of hands, how many other TNFers experience this sort of thing as frequently as I and apparently patric do?

Now, I have to go to 71st & Memorial today (pray for me). I will report back whether I get my donkey kicked by a roving jack booted thug cop.

[nathanm]

This sort of thing happens to me all the time. I walk into a department store, minding my own business, and the police just charge and kick my donkey. Show of hands, how many other TNFers experience this sort of thing as frequently as I and apparently patric do?

That such incidents are rare enough that you personally don't experience them has no bearing on their propriety or lack thereof.

[guido911]

That such incidents are rare enough that you personally don't experience them has no bearing on their propriety or lack thereof.

My freakin point exactly. 

[Teatownclown]

My point...EXACTLY!

[Ed W]

"Conan, what is good in life?"

"To kill the WalMart shoppers.  To see them run before you.  To crush the old women underfoot."

It's been awhile since I saw "Conan the Barbarian" so I may be off a bit on that quotation.

[nathanm]

My freakin point exactly. 

OK, so it's somewhat rare (on the order of the number of murders in the US, let's say). Does that make it OK?

[guido911]

My point...EXACTLY!

Where's the pic of the guy crapping on a Geek Squad van and the requisite "rape-free zone" tent?

[guido911]

And I managed to make to and from 71st & Memorial without getting my donkey kicked by a cop. Dodged a bullet, I guess.