| |||||||||
 |
| | |||||||
| |||||||||
Wal-Mart believes that it has been a good neighbor wherever it builds a store because they give people in the community jobs, and offer their products at low prices. This sounds almost too good to be true — and it is.
Wal-Mart relies on outsourced products to keep your dollars in your purse — that is, if you make it through the parking lot to your car alive, or without it getting snatched. By relying on outsourced products, potential jobs are taken away from Americans. Employees of Wal-Mart tend to be people in the community that suffer with their substandard wages and health care.
When the poverty level goes up in a community, crime is certain to follow. Wal-Mart was there for Steven J. Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky when they needed rope and an air rif le for their home invasion in Cheshire this past summer. Within 72 hours of his ankle bracelet being removed, Komisarjevsky was burglarizing homes. Ninety-six hours after the removal, he was inside the Petit's home.
Violence at Wal-Mart is nothing new. Sheila Cole was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot in November of 1977 by Timothy W. Krajcir. Cole was found dead in a women's restroom after being shot twice in the head.
In the April 2007 New York Times article, "Before Deadly Rage, a Life Consumed by a Troubling Silence," N.R. Kleinfield deems the Virginia Tech massacre the worst slaughter of its kind in the history of the country. Seung-Hui Cho killed himself after massacring 27 students and five teachers last spring. Declared mentally ill at Carilion St. Albans Psychiatric Hospital in Radford, Va., Cho was also described as sullen with an empty face. Cho visited a Wal-Mart in Christiansburg on March 31, April 7, April 8 and April 13 in 2007 to prepare for his massacre.
Monsey, New York is largely a Hasidic Jewish community. Since the 1970s, the community in Rockland County has been guided by centuriesold religious traditions, and remained unchanged even in the face of unprecedented growth inside and outside town borders. Women are rarely seen driving in this community. An article published in June 2007 in the New York Times reveals the community's concerns about traffic and crime if Wal-Mart comes to town. Monsey is concerned about the overall quality of life for their citizens. Wal-Mart offers a false sense of security with their huge security camera domes. Co-producer of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," Kerry Candaele explains on the documentary's website how Megan Holden was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot and brutally murdered. The killer was seen hanging around the inside and outside of the store on a security camera videotape that had gone unwatched until the murder investigation. "...Nobody ever monitors the cameras. It would take one low paid worker to do it for every eight hour shift... the cameras at Wal-Mart stores go unwatched," Candaele said.
If these cases are too independent, consider the case on J.R. Roberts' website. Roberts, the Director of Risk Management for Valor Security, goes into detail about a Wal-Mart killer. Unnamed on Roberts' website, Roberts "...wanted to know why this predator chose Wal-Mart as his hunting ground." The criminal responded, "'You just go there [Wal-Mart] and if you park, you can just watch people pull up.'"
What is interesting about this criminal in particular on Roberts' website is that it didn't take long for him to find a "like-minded creep." The two escaped custody, and what ensued was a four-week, multi-state crime spree. Roberts' asked "So, Wal-Mart is a 24 hour opportunity?" to one of the two criminals who had frequented different Wal-Marts within those four weeks. "Yeah. We didn't want to go nowhere where there was security," the man replied.
To Wal-Mart, or not to Wal-Mart? That is quite an ethical question. Wal-Mart spends a lot of money to scare you, the common shopper, from stealing mascara, but very little money to protect their customers. My final question: What came first: the Wal-Mart or the crime?
source: The Recorder Online
No comments:
Post a Comment