As the chaos across America caused by Black Friday begins to subside, videos of stampeding crowds and reports of outrageous arrests have begun to flood the internet. We all know about the awesome discounts that come to your favorite stores the day after Thanksgiving, but all those savings come with an inevitable dark side. Not only do these sales cause a mass shopping frenzy, but they also lead to hoards of people ripping apart products along with some pretty aggressive, and downright bizarre, behavior. As if getting crushed by a mob trying to get at discounted headphones wasn’t terrifying enough, on Friday, incidents of verbal and physical threats being made by both fellow shoppers and police started to pour in!

A man in Sacramento threatened to stab fellow shoppers who waited in line outside of a Walmart, luckily it was just an idle threat and no one was hurt. In San Antonio, a man cut in line at Sears and punched one of the shoppers who then pulled out a gun. The line-cutter hid behind a refrigerator before fleeing from the store. In Washington, a couple were run over by a 71-year-old man in an SUV, while in Maryland at 14-year-old was robbed by five men after leaving Bed, Bath & Beyond.

But it wasn’t just shoppers who took the meaning of Black Friday to new extremes, police responding to these incidents aren’t acting with much more civility. In Florida, when a woman searching for her sister-in-law in a crowded store failed to stay with the flow of the checkout lines, police officers first attempted to escort her out before tackling her to the ground and arresting her. Also, a man in Arizona has filed a lawsuit against the police for leaving him bloodied, beaten and unconscious in a Walmart on Black Friday last year.

Black Friday has always been a nightmare for shopping, but doesn’t it seem like some precautions could be put in place so we can all shop in safety and avoid incidents like these?

What do you Lovelies think: is the Black Friday madness worth it for the savings? Or has the craziness gotten out of hand?

 

 

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