You have to look at these videos of Americans battling seemingly to the death over getting big bargains on Black Friday and wonder if they’re fake — actually produced by the United States’ enemies abroad. They can’t be real. But they are — and the latest new twist is women getting into a stun gun fight in a mall in Pennsylvania:
Some details:
Black Friday shopping can be hazardous to your health.
One woman apparently used a stun gun on another after an all-out brawl inside of the Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philadelphia.
Mike Napolitano was in the mall with two of his friends when they came up on the fight.
“It started out, one couple was fighting with another couple. They had words, the guys got into a fight and then the girls,” said Napolitano, who videotaped the melee. “One couple, they were like a family and all, with a young child in a stroller.”
The video shows the two women punching each other and someone in the crowd yelling, “No, stop.”
After the two hit the ground, fighting, you can hear the crackle of what sounds like a stun gun and see fluorescent-colored sparks.
“One girl just brought out a taser,” the 20-year-old said.
At that point, several people run up and pry the two women apart.
“Then security came over and I kinda left, you know, I was thinking, ‘God forbid if somebody has a gun or something,'” Napolitano said.
Mall security confirmed that a fight did break out in the mall around 2:30 a.m.
In a statement to NBC10, mall general manager John Ahle said security acted quickly to take control of the situation.
“An isolated incident occurred in the early morning hours between two female shoppers, that was quickly stopped by our security team, and both women were escorted out of the mall,” he said in the statement. “We are committed to the safety of our shoppers, retailers and employees and will not tolerate this unacceptable behavior”
But, honestly, you look at these videos and realize:
In the 50s and 60s they satirized people going haywire during sales in some comedies and cartoons.
But now it’s reality.
How has our culture sunk to the point where people will literally fight each other and use a stun gun to try and get a cheaper piece of merchandise?
And — no joke — what will happen in the next escalation when mere fights and stun guns are oh, so, 2013.
How much more violent can it or will it get?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.