perfect example of the callousness of humanity

[Flyndaran]

Inciting a riot? That's some serious hyperbole. Did any company ever excplicitly or even implicitly suggest that their customers should injure or even kill others? I seriously doubt that.
Having a huge sale is not inciting a riot by my definition.
Calling it such is insulting to all those injured in real promoted riots.

[AFPheonix]

Perhaps not, but management and upper management responsible for that store and others like it should be preparing better for situations like this.

Honestly, how hard is it to have decent crowd control systems in place, and perhaps a ticket system for the more in-demand items?

That Wal-Mart is responsible in part by setting that poor guy up for failure by it's lack of due diligence. You can herd people. We are controllable.

[smileyeagle1021]

Inciting a riot? That's some serious hyperbole.

as per dictionary.com a riot is described as "a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons" alternatively "violent or wild disorder or confusion."
by dictionary definition what occurred at wal*mart was a riot.
this situation was a result of a backfired marketing ploy, it's a known fact that by advertising limited quantity door busters they will have a mass of people who likely will be disorderly, so to say that they incited it isn't that much of a stretch.

so, over dramatic, most definitely, hyperbole, not as much as you'd think.

[MadMike]

Inciting a riot? That's some serious hyperbole. Did any company ever excplicitly or even implicitly suggest that their customers should injure or even kill others? I seriously doubt that.
Having a huge sale is not inciting a riot by my definition.
Calling it such is insulting to all those injured in real promoted riots.

I have to agree with you for the most part, but I still think some heads should roll just because they put that one guy in front of the crowd, with no protection of any kind.

Normally, I'm the first person to say something like "the store/restaurant/bar/etc didn't force people to do x, which caused y to happen", but in this case, the company was far from blameless.

[Flyndaran]

I have to agree with you for the most part, but I still think some heads should roll just because they put that one guy in front of the crowd, with no protection of any kind.

Normally, I'm the first person to say something like "the store/restaurant/bar/etc didn't force people to do x, which caused y to happen", but in this case, the company was far from blameless.

Oh of course, certainly not morally blameless, and somewhat negligent in their complete lack of planning. It's just does not rise to the level of criminally, or civilally, liable.

Unless the individual patrons have been proven to commit such crimes and shown a complete inability to control their actions, then no company should assume their customers will murder people. They should make some precuations to protect their employees as well as store property. But should haves are musts.

as per dictionary.com a riot is described as "a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons" alternatively "violent or wild disorder or confusion."
by dictionary definition what occurred at wal*mart was a riot.
...
so, over dramatic, most definitely, hyperbole, not as much as you'd think.

Remember that legal terms are often clarified, or even at odds with, words as they are commonly used and therfore defined in dictionaries.