Weekend Crime Spree Hits Wal-Mart

2009-03-09
Locust, N.C. A million police calls a year at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart wanted its smiley face in Locust---but now local officials aren’t smiling over the potential financial impact of crime in their small community attributable to the Wal-Mart superstore that is coming.
According to the Stanly News and Press (SNAP), the residents of Locust recently heard from a consultant about the potential impact of crime on this city located northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Because of concerns over growth in Locust, the city council brought in a consultant to evaluate the Locust Police Department. To assess their police department’s capacity to handle growth, the city retained David McAlexander, a former police officer with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).
McAlexander examined in detail the police department’s call load and volume, growth and staffing.  This past week, McAlexander presented his report to city officials.
In his report, McAlexander projected that the city’s population would double from 3,200 today, to 6,500 by the year 2010. The regional Wal-Mart that will open, and the Red Bridge Golf and Country Club will play a major role in demands being placed on the Locust police.
According to McAlexander, the city will be forced to increase from its current staffing level of nine officers. McAlexander studied the police department call load in 2007 and 2008, and found an increase in volume of 16%. In 2007, the police department received 5,084 calls for service, but calls jumped to 5,888 in 2008.
If Locust population increases as projected, McAlexander projects that the police department will receive as many as 9,357 calls for service by the year 2010. This is an 84% increase from 2007. .
But, according to the SNAP, the other major concern is Wal-Mart. According to the newspaper, “Wal-Mart is also an area to be concerned about as national figures show approximately 973,000 calls for service across the U.S. at Wal-Mart locations.”
McAlexander suggested the city council should plan on adding six new patrol officers within the next year and a half to keep up with rising calls-—a 67% increase in personnel.
“The good news out of all of this is that you, as a council, town and police department, have the opportunity to act instead of react,” McAlexander told city officials.
But its unlikely that Mayor Harold Greene found any good news in this police capacity report. Right about now, the Mayor may be wishing there were no Wal-Marts at all coming to Locust. ~~~~~~~~~~(Continued)

“ The figure of 973,000 police calls to Wal-Mart nationally is an unsettling figure. This figure is very close to a projection made in 2006 by Wake Up Wal-Mart, which released the first national crime study just on Wal-Mart locations.
The Wake Up Wal-Mart nationwide study analyzed police crime reports during 2004 involving 551 randomly selected Wal-Mart stores in 434 cities in 30 states. The surveyed stores generated 148,331 calls for police service, or an average of 269 police incidents per store.
And 2,909 of those calls were for violent or serious crimes, the report said. Based on the survey, the report estimated that Wal-Mart’s national chain of more than 3,857 stores generated 1 million police responses in 2004, at a cost of $77 million to taxpayers. Little Locust is just the tip of the crime iceberg at Wal-Mart."~~~~~Sprawl-Busters

hoiw about all the significantlyhigher levels of crime and shoplifting calls to costco,ufcw union grocery stores and your favorite expensive shopping malls with high end stores that cater to the rich ddrb?funny you are so silent about the higher levels of crime your favorite places bringbut whine like a little 2 year old kid about walmarts crime.proving what a hypocrite you are.

Doofus: Put up the statistics to back up your rant,WalMatt.

Matt is like your neighbor’s unchained dog that comes over and takes a shit in your front yard and pretends it was a honest story or rational opinion. RDS of course approves of whatever and wherever his dog craps, it is the Walmart internet way.

Lawyer: Wal-Mart stampede witnesses get grand jury call
By ANN GIVENS , Newsday
February 6th, 2009

Witnesses to a shopper stampede that killed a man at a Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Black Friday last year have been called to testify before a special grand jury investigating what happened that day, their lawyer said.

Robert Steinberg of Garden City, who represents two people who were hurt in the melee, said one of his clients has already testified to the grand jury. He said the other has been subpoenaed. He declined to identify them.

If a grand jury has been empaneled to look into the case, it could mean that the district attorney is exploring criminal charges against Wal-Mart, experts said.

The district attorney’s office has previously acknowledged investigating how Wal-Mart prepared for the flood of shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. The chain has said it hired additional security personnel, staffed the store with more employees and erected barricades at the Green Acres Mall location in anticipation of a crowd.

Eric Phillips, a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, would not confirm that a grand jury has been empaneled because he said there is an ongoing investigation into what happened.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore also would not confirm that a grand jury is meeting, and would not speculate on the possibility that the superstore could be charged with a crime.

[Continued]

Seasonal security worker Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, Queens, was trampled when some 2,000 frenzied shoppers broke through a glass door in a rush to get to special Christmas sale items.

Damour’s family, as well as several people who were caught up in the melee, have filed lawsuits against Wal-Mart.

Damour’s “family supports any effort to investigate this terrible tragedy, and ensure that justice is served,” said Andrew Libo, a Manhattan lawyer representing Damour’s relatives.

The grand jury could indict Wal-Mart on a charge of criminally negligent homicide - the charge experts said would be most likely. If so, prosecutors would have to prove that the company failed to perceive that it was taking a substantial risk in the way it handled the Black Friday event, said Eugene O’Donnell, a law and police science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

Prosecutors would likely focus on how much warning the store had that such a large crowd might turn up and how it trained employees and security personnel, among other things, O’Donnell said.

If Wal-Mart were found guilty, it could be punished with a fine - up to $5,000 for a misdemeanor or up to $10,000 for a felony. It could also receive a “conditional discharge” with stipulations that could include providing restitution to people hurt in the crush or their families, O’Donnell said.

James Acker, a criminal law professor at Albany Law School, said even though $10,000 is a pittance to a huge company like Wal-Mart, it can make a strong symbolic statement.

“It’s an attention-getting device that shows the community that this is serious,he said."~~~~~~~~via Wake Up WalMart