From Huff Po:
LOS ANGELES -- Authorities say at least 10 people suffered minor injuries inside a crowded Walmart store in Los Angeles after a female shopper used pepper spray during a confrontation.
The incident occurred shortly after 10:20 p.m. Thursday in the San Fernando Valley as shoppers looking for Black Friday deals were let inside the store.
Shawn Lenske, a Los Angeles fire spokesman, said the injuries, all of them minor, were due to "rapid crowd movement."
Police Lt. Abel Parga says a woman used pepper spray, hitting other customers. It's unknown what caused the confrontation.
Parga said police were looking for the woman. No arrests have been made.
A witness told NBC4 that the incident broke out in a line of shoppers waiting for the new XBox 360.
The witness said a woman with two children in tow did not like the way people were pushing in line, and she pulled out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. It is not clear yet what happened to the alleged pepper sprayer.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/Black-Friday-Pepper-Spray-Incident-in-Porter-Ranch-134481693.html
What the hell?
Posted by: The Dukenator | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 05:30 AM
Someone give this woman a "world's best mother" award here, please. She's taught her kids a valuable lesson: If you don't get what you want, feel free to cause injury to other people and possibly trigger asthma attacks by blasting them with pepper spray. [/sarcasm]
Posted by: Token Female | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 06:47 AM
By "what you want" I was indicating better crowd behavior, btw, not the xBox. Not that that's going to happen on Black Friday, anyways.
Posted by: Token Female | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 06:48 AM
Newest update states that 20 people were injured in this incident, 10 for those injuries being due to "rapid crowd movement." They haven't' caught the "mother" as of yet. Fortunately all of the injuries are said to have been minor.
Posted by: nucleon | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 08:08 AM
Porter Ranch is in LA County, but it's nowhere near the city of Los Angeles. I know, no one cares but it's a peeve of mine. :P
Apparently she sprayed several people around the store to get "deals" she wanted. I hate people. This is why I do my holiday shopping on Amazon.
Posted by: many bells down | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 09:08 AM
Well, if it's ok for our uniformed heroes to do it, it should be ok for everyone, right?
Posted by: Hellbound Alleee | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 10:12 AM
It's a "food product"! She was just making sure they had a midnight snack!
...okay, snark aside, I am almost entirely positive there will be a physical assault in my store today as well, and if there is, I can only hope it doesn't involve gorram pepper spray. That shit *drifts.*
Posted by: Book Wench | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 12:00 PM
it's child endangerment just bringing a child to black friday as it is
Posted by: earl | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 01:44 PM
*shudders* Aaand this is the one silver lining to unemployment...I may not have a job, but I can happily hide out in my bed, under my covers, with a good book and some leftover pie, instead of dealing with the what-the-fuck-fest that is Black Friday.
Posted by: ScanGunMonkey | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 02:43 PM
That is insane. I'm lucky the Bullseye where I work was super organized and effective with crowd control this year.
They let people enter the store in waves of like 5 people at a time a few minutes apart to keep things manageable. Anyone that ran/pushed/got too rowdy was instantly escorted out.
Posted by: Red Rider | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 03:12 PM
@nucleon Would it be this: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/la-fiw-wal-mart-chaos-20111126,0,3572272.story
Posted by: The Dukenator | Friday, November 25, 2011 at 06:06 PM
I hope to God that the XBox she bought is defective, and that her kid gets totally pwned on every game he plays. I also hope the cops find her and pepper spray her. Not arrest her, just pepper spray her. One minute for every person she assaulted at Wal-Mart.
Posted by: NC Tony | Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 12:13 PM
Apparently she turned her ass in since the cops were gonna find her eventually. Stupid bitch should have her kids taken away for pulling shit like that.
Posted by: Queer Geek | Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 09:11 PM
And that is why I believe people should carry tasers and not pepper spray.
Less collateral damage...
Posted by: Bitch Boy | Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 09:58 PM
Well now we see what happens when the police get to do the same thing with no repercussions. Random people everywhere think it's fine.
Posted by: Skittles | Monday, November 28, 2011 at 04:01 AM
Wow, what a great thing to teach your kids. When your entitled ass doesn't get what you want how YOU want it, pepper spray a bunch of unsuspecting people. Seriously, that stuff is what nightmares are made of. Karma is a bitch lady...
Posted by: Bizhub Bitch | Monday, November 28, 2011 at 09:20 AM
She turned herself in, but they're "investigating" and not sure whether they're going to press charges! Come on, if I yelled "Fire!" in a crowded theater I'd get arrested for public disturbance or inciting a riot. How is what she did any different?
Posted by: many bells down | Monday, November 28, 2011 at 09:50 AM