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The following article was originally published on Huffington Post.

You steal, you die.

That’s the international policy apparently at Wal-Mart stores, where reports indicate another alleged shoplifter has died at the hands of a gang of overzealous Wal-Mart workers—this time in China.

According to the Associated Press report this week, Yu Xiachun, a 37-year-old woman, died 500 yards from the Wal-Mart store in Jiangxi province. Based on the local police report, Yu had exited the store and was on her way home on August 30th when she was surrounded by five Wal-Mart workers, who accused her of shoplifting.

The Wal-Mart workers asked Yu to produce a receipt, which she did. But then Yu tried to take the receipt back—questioning who the four men and one woman were, because no one was wearing a Wal-Mart uniform. The police say that the Wal-Mart workers fought with Yu, and she was knocked to the ground. She was taken to the hospital, where she died three days later. The police have arrested two of the young Wal-Mart workers who fought with Yu. It is not clear yet what they are being charged with, if anything.

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In addition to severe beatings and harassment from a team of hungry lawyers, Wal-Mart won’t think twice about humiliating a shoplifter in the press. 

Our guess is that Wal-Mart would have wanted the alleged criminal identified, but the Cleveland Plain-Dealer vetoed it?

Cleveland: Shoplifter at Steelyard Drive Walmart had hemorrhoid cream, suppositories [Cleveland.com]

SHOPLIFTING, STEELYARD DRIVE:  A 25-year-old East Boulevard man faces petty theft charges after workers at Walmart told police May 21 that he tried to steal two packages of hemorrhoid cream, a box of suppositories and a tube of warming massage oil from the store. The merchandise was valued at $28.

SHOPLIFTING, STEELYARD DRIVE:  A 51-year-old Horace Court man faces petty theft charges after workers at Walmart told police May 19 he tried to steal six Secret women’s deodorants from the store valued at $30.

Yikes.

(Seriously, though: does any other company get $28 shoplifting incidents written up in the newspaper? My guess is maybe, but not with Wal-Mart’s batting average. Check the rest of the crimes on the crime roundup page...there’s no doubt that the lead headline and Wal-Mart stories are BY FAR the most minor of the bunch....)

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Wal-Mart has agreed to pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as part of a deal with prosecutors that avoids criminal charges in the trampling death of a temporary worker. Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m. on Friday, November 28th.

The news comes months after Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice began a criminal investigation into the death of Damour, a seasonal worker from Jamaica, Queens, who it is now known died from “positional asphyxiation” that resulted from direct and intense pressure having been applied to his chest - a result to be expected when a human being is trampled by 2,000 on-rushing shoppers.

[Wal-Mart] has agreed to implement an improved crowd-management plan for post-Thanksgiving Day sales, set up a $400,000 victims’ compensation and remuneration fund, and give a $1.5 million grant to Nassau County social services programs and nonprofit groups.

Perhaps more importantly, however, is that Wal-Mart will escape criminal prosecution as a result of the agreement. A telling quote from the Chicago Tribune - “The agreement included no admission of guilt by Wal-Mart.”

This aspect is important, because while Attorney Rice points out that Wal-Mart would have been subject to only a $10,000 fine if convicted, that conviction would have been hanging like a cloud over Wal-Mart during plaintiffs’ civil cases. The $400,000 victims’ compensation fund isn’t nearly as much as Damour’s family would expect to collect in a civil suit if Wal-Mart were to be found at fault, and anyone who accepts money from the compensation fund will automatically waive their right to sue. And as we reported following the tragedy, many media outlets and labor officials from UFCW to the Wall Street Journal have heaped the majority of the blame squarely on Wal-Mart for being woefully unprepared and understaffed (though that hardly would make winning a civil suit a slam dunk). From the Tribune:

Earlier this year, Damour’s family announced plans to sue the county, retailer and others. The family’s attorney did not immediately comment on Wednesday’s announcement. Any victims who accept payment from the Wal-Mart compensation fund will be required to waive their right to a separate civil suit against Wal-Mart, Rice said.

A heartfelt move by Wal-Mart, or part of a strategic plan to gain some positive press and escape further liability? You decide...More on initial reaction to the stampede, and Wal-Mart’s settlement announcement, after the jump.

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What a weekend at Wal-Mart. Over the past few days there seemed to be an usual number shootings, car crashes, suspected kidnappings, purse snatchings, and doubtless many other dramatic crimes.

At Wal-Mart Watch, we haven’t spent too much time talking about the crimes that occur every day in Wal-Mart stores and parking lots around the country. But it’s a very real issue.

When Wal-Mart moves in to many rural and suburban settings, it often becomes the busiest place in town, and thus a haven for criminals of all variety. Time and time again we hear stories of how Wal-Mart refuses to properly secure its parking lots and stores, and forces local police departments to pick up the slack.

Al Norman writes more on Wal-Mart’s refusal to acknowledge crime is a major problem on its premises, especially in its parking lots.

Here’s just one example of how bad the problem often gets, courtesy of the Associated Press:

A teenager wounded in a shooting at a Rochester, N.H., Wal-Mart last week has been charged with reckless conduct.

Seventeen-year-old Levi Downs is the third person to be arrested after Tuesday’s night’s confrontation. A prosecutor said last week that Downs accidentally shot himself in the abdomen, but police now say they’re not certain of that.

Downs is accused of brandishing a gun during the fight. Eighteen-year-old Stephen Miller of Rochester is charged with reckless conduct, falsifying evidence and having a gun without a permit. Thirty-4-year-old Cindy Byrnes of Rochester was charged with falsifying evidence for allegedly taking the guns from the store to hinder the investigation.

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Following on Obama’s signing yesterday of a law to make it easier for workers to file and win pay discrimination lawsuits, organized labor took another step forward today when the President signed three executive orders meant to increase protections for employees of government contractors, ensuring they have jobs when contracts change and making it more difficult to fire them.

In addition to saying he “disagreed” with Bush Administration labor policies, Obama yesterday took a shot at Wall Street’s excesses, calling the exorbitant spending behavior of top bankers “shameful”. And the bankers aren’t the only ones, considering outgoing Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s total compensation amounted to $31.6 million last year (not including the value of his stock options) while many of his employees are living in poverty.

Obama Moves To Reverse Bush’s Labor Policies [New York Times]

On yet another morning of grim economic news, President Obama on Friday sought to further distance himself from his predecessor as he announced steps that he said would strengthen organized labor and improve the lot of middle-class Americans.

At a White House ceremony, the president signed three executive orders that he said would “reverse many of the policies towards organized labor that we’ve seen these last eight years, policies with which I’ve sharply disagreed.”

Soon afterward, Vice President Biden drew applause when he flung another dart at former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney (on Mr. Cheney’s 68th birthday) as he told labor officials in the audience, “Welcome back to the White House.”

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An LA Times piece gives us new insight into the crowd atmosphere that led to Jdimytai Damour’s death - an atmosphere that began long before the doors at the Valley Stream store opened.

Apparently, shoppers were already rowdy, pushing and reporting injuries by 3:30 AM, long before the store opened. At that time, the crowd “had grown to 2000” - well above the crowds of previous years. While the article might appear to be an indictment of shoppers’ own senseless animal behavior and unrestrained emotions, it makes it clear that Wal-Mart had plenty of time to observe the chaos, and to work with local police and its own security to protect its customers and workers.

A coworker tells the Times that Damour told him after he was placed at the front of the store, before the doors were opened and then broken off the hinges, “I don’t want to be here.”

Wal-Mart crowd unruly long before trampling [Los Angeles Times via Seattle Times]:

NEW YORK — He took his last breath on the floor at Wal-Mart, between the soda machines and a device that gives change for cans and plastic.

Trampled by a mob of bargain-hungry Black Friday shoppers, Jdimytai Damour, 34, died by asphyxiation, leaving people asking: Why, and how?

Audio-enhanced chatter captured on a cellphone video posted on YouTube and interviews with witnesses offer some hints.

The video shows a police officer crouching by a 6-foot-5-inch, 270-pound man lying at the entrance of the Long Island Wal-Mart. A paramedic pumps the man’s chest so forcefully his limp legs and feet joggle. Shoppers peer from behind glass doors or stand a few feet away, hands in pockets.

“They need to shock him,” a voice says.

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Six days after Jdimytai Damour’s tragic death, a clearer picture has emerged of not only its immediate causes but the broader question of who is responsible.

On the death itself:

[Nassau County, NY Police Commissioner] Mulvey said yesterday that Damour’s cause of death was “positional asphyxiation” consistent with having pressure applied to his chest… “He was trampled to death,” Mulvey said. [Newsday.com, 12/2/08]

The official autopsy does not lie; it clearly took a massive flood of people to knock over and crush a 270-pound man. Other articles point out how the death was preventable:

“This incident was avoidable,” said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York’s largest grocery worker’s union…"Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?[CNN, 11/30/08]

Clearly, Damour lacked training and was ill-prepared to handle the onslaught he faced, further reiterating Wal-Mart’s tendency to under-train and under-staff:

[The family’s attorney] Hecht said Damour had been working at the Wal-Mart only for about a week and was hired through an employment agency that provides temporary staffing. Damour had not been trained for any security assignments and had no background in crowd control, he said. [AP, 12/1/08]

This Wall Street Journal story summarizes Wal-Mart’s culpability:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. should have had better crowd control to prevent the death of a worker who was trampled the day after Thanksgiving amid the bargain-hunting frenzy whipped up by the sales known as door-busters, according to local police and a lawyer for the worker’s family.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time:

Wal-Mart faced several lawsuits from customers who claimed they were hurt by out-of-control shoppers seeking talking Furby dolls in 1998. [Wall Street Journal, 12/2/08]

It’s also important to keep in mind that Damour’s death, while the most severe event this Black Friday, was not the only one; it mirrored other, less serious incidents across the country that easily could have been far worse. For example, in Mississippi:

Allison Burchyett…said she was punched in the stomach by another female shopper who swiped a camera out of her hands at about 4:45 a.m. Friday. [DeSoto Times-Tribune (Miss.), 12/2/08]
News coverage of Damour’s death over the past few days has reflected mixed assignments of blame. Of course, many sources cite the crowd’s collective responsibility and that of the individuals within it.

One columnist wrote:

EXCUSE THE journalistic license, but I’m trying really hard to imagine what must have been in the minds of those impatient, early morning shoppers who trampled a security guard to death during a Black Friday sale at Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y. [Philadelphia Daily News, 12/2/08]

However, other sources place the responsibility squarely on Wal-Mart’s shoulders, pointing out that they and other retailers incited a climate of reckless bargain-hunting. A letter in the New York Times indicts corporate America as a whole:

Though blame for this tragic incident rests primarily upon the barbarians who rushed the door, corporate America must shoulder some blame for creating the hype surrounding the ritual known as Black Friday that causes some aggressive and nasty people to do horrible things. [NY Times, 12/1/08]

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