The day after Americans observed a holiday meant to give thanks to God for their blessings, video footage surfaced of Black Friday shoppers across the country brawling over everything from sneakers to flat screen TVs to even vegetable steamers.
Just as last year, a number of retailers decided to get an early start on the big shopping day, opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day, and so the fights began as soon as as Thursday night.
One of the most viral videos is of two men punching each other at Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky until police break up the altercation. At the end of the video, a man calls out “World Star,” most likely in reference to the hip-hop culture site that compiles fight videos.
Shoppers were likewise captured on video fighting at the Florence Mall, also in Kentucky, reportedly hitting each other after someone took the last pair of Air Jordan sneakers.
At a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, shoppers thronged around a display of flat-screen televisions, and in the meyhem, two women began fighting over a box, which was soon ripped out of one of the women’s hands by a shopper who seized on the opportunity. The woman then began smacking the man and yelling at the other woman until a security officer stepped in between them and ordered them to stop.
Another video recorded at the same location shows Ruben Garcia, 23, pushing an officer before he is placed on the floor and put in handcuffs.
“Everybody just goes and starts grabbing, pushing, and shoving just trying to get a TV,” shopper Lucy Agosto told KFox14. “The cop had the guy like this (putting her hands around her neck). He told him to drop the TV and the guy kept saying, ‘I had it first! I had it first!'”
In Springfield, Virginia, a woman was arrested outside of Best Buy on Thanksgiving Day when she physically assaulted another shopper with a chair when he wouldn’t allow her to cut the line.
“She was angry, and I was telling her, ‘No, you’re not getting in the front of the line. I’ve been here since 12 [p.m.],’” shopper Ahmad Shukrey told Fox5 News. “And she proceeds to attack me with the chair, pushing into my friend, knocking me over and twisting my ankle.”’
“And she started resisting arrest, and while she was resisting arrest, she actually hit an officer,” added shopper Steven Boone.
And while some question whether the incident was genuine or staged, a video has also surfaced of a Michigan woman yanking a vegetable steamer from the arms of a child and then attempting to pull another box out of his mother’s arms.
“I’m posting anonymous because I don’t want 2b (sic) fired, but I work at this store in Saginaw and this lady stole a veggie steamer from a kid on Black Friday! Shame,” the description under the YouTube video reads.