[2Wycked]

I'm certain this video that went viral earlier this summer (white trash scrapping at a Walmart) got shared, but I couldn't find the thread, so here it is again:

Well, that was in June. Flash forward to now and this particular Walmart is in the news again, with the local mayor fed up with all the crime it attracts:


Gillace Monroe Samples

Quote:

BEECH GROVE, Ind. -- When a man shot himself following an incident at Walmart in Beech Grove, it was the last straw for that town’s mayor. He’s declared the business a public nuisance.

On Thursday morning, 42-year-old Gillace Monroe Samples tried to steal from the store, police said. After being caught by security, Samples waved his gun at employees before running to a nearby restaurant and shooting himself in the head as police closed in.

He was in critical condition at Eskenazi Hospital as of Friday afternoon.

The shooting is the latest in a string of high-profile incidents that have been connected to the troubled Walmart store over the last two months, joining a brawl between two women in the store’s shampoo aisle and a separate act of shoplifting that ended with a crash that killed a 63-year-old woman.

As a public nuisance, Walmart can be assessed fines when officers are needed there.

To Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley, it’s one of the only remaining options.

“We’re better than that, our community is better than that and I don’t want to get a phone call every day saying that somebody pulled a gun at Walmart and has done something out of line,” Buckley said.

Police said Thursday’s incident began around 11 a.m. Samples and another suspect, 42-year-old Johnny Maxey, were caught shoplifting.

Two Walmart employees — one an off-duty Marion County Sheriff's Department deputy working as a security guard and another assisting him — escorted the suspects to the store’s loss prevention office.

That’s when Samples pulled out a handgun before fleeing the store, police said. The deputy, assisted by Beech Grove and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers, chased Samples.

Witnesses helped the officers track down Samples in the restroom of Egg Roll No. 1, a restaurant located just north of Walmart. Officers were moving in to make an arrest when they heard a gunshot, police said.

Samples was wanted for parole violation and battery by means of a deadly weapon, and for being a serious violent felon in possession of a firearm, police said. The battery and gun possession charges are connected to a shooting reported in Indianapolis on July 29.

Like Buckley, Walmart spokesman Brian Nick expressed frustration with the latest confrontation. He also commended Walmart employees and security for keeping other shoppers safe.

“We’re thankful that our security measures helped identify a dangerous individual who could have caused harm to others in the community,” Nick said.

The aftermath of previous incidents saw police discussing how frequent runs to Walmart have stretched the department’s resources. Between February 2014 and mid-June, Beech Grove police made 1,278 runs to the store resulting in 473 arrests.

Officials from both sides met and eventually implemented a restorative justice program at Walmart.

The voluntary program, Nick said, is designed to reduce the number of police runs to the store. It gives Walmart associates the ability to offer some shoplifters a chance to opt into a program that results in a fine instead of being arrested.

It’s usually targeted at people during first-time offenses when police aren’t necessary, Nick said.

“That is something the store will continue to work on with law enforcement, and something that we’ve seen success with in other parts of the country,” he said.

While he’s pleased with the program’s early results, Buckley said he’s noticed police activity has increased over the last two weeks.

Once the public nuisance designation is finalized, Walmart will be notified and given a 10-day grace period before receiving fines, Buckley said.

Then officers will have the option to issue tickets when they’re called to the store. Each ticket could carry a $2,500 penalty and court fees.

In response to the designation, Nick said Walmart officials will work to keep the store peaceful.

In sum: the mayor wants to start fining Walmart for all the police resources the store and its customers eat up.

However, that isn't the full story, as it seems the local Walmart is able to dodge its property taxes due to an incentive plan drawn up to bring Walmart to the city:

Quote:

But can the mayor blame the store for locals’ dreadful behavior? Is this move a revenue raiser for the town, since the police can slap the local store with $2,500 tickets max?

Or is there another storyline here, that Walmart, with nearly a half a trillion dollars in annual revenue, $482 billion, isn’t doing enough to provide security at its local stores, as customers get assaulted, shoppers brawl, and even killings occur?

The Beech Grove mayor’s move comes as big cities like San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Washington, DC fight Walmart’s continued expansion. The Beech Grove Walmart was the scene of a major brawl between two women in the shampoo aisle that went viral on YouTube.

The Beech Grove Walmart story raises the controversy over what are called “tax increment financing districts.” In these districts carved out to cover the area in which a local Walmart store sits, the store does not have to pay property taxes for about 25 years, in exchange for the economic stimulus a Walmart would bring. Instead, local residents, including mom and pop stores, are left to pick up the slack in property taxes, which pays for things like police, firemen, and garbage pickup. The stores do pay other taxes to the states in which they reside, as well as federal taxes.

Walmart tells FOX Business in an emailed statement: “We certainly don’t want people in our stores for the wrong reasons any more than other businesses do and we have safety and security measures in place to handle accordingly.”

The statement adds: “Walmart has worked closely with local law enforcement officials and directly responded to their requests by both hiring an off-duty police officer to be in the store and implementing a program designed to reduce store calls for police assistance.”

But Dennis Buckley, the mayor of Beech Grove, tells FOX Business: “Walmart is draining our resources, it’s bleeding us. They only pay property taxes into the local taxing district, not back to us in the town. So Walmart is using our cops we pay for, for their security. Walmart has just one off-duty cop in the store, but he’s not there 24/7, he often leaves at noon. They also use our fire department services, too.”

The mayor adds: “We’ve been talking to Walmart for some time now about this problem of lack of security at its store. It’s difficult for us, we only have four to six cops on duty at any given time, but sometimes they all have to go deal with Walmart, putting our residents at risk. It’s frustrating.”

He continued: “Local people here, the vast majority, support Walmart, but they’re concerned about it. I don’t think Walmart does a good enough job of controlling who comes in their store and what they do when they come in their store. They [Walmart] need to send a message they’re not going to put up with this.”

Mayor Buckley says: “The people who are creating these problems are not our residents. They come in from outside the town. It’s a shame, Walmart could really be a good asset. Who knows, an incident is probably going on right now at the Walmart there. It’s got to stop.”

One thing mayor Buckley says Walmart could do is, it “could make the customers it suspects of bad behavior subject to search. They should do what Home Depot and Lowe’s does, and that is check their customers’ bags and check receipts when they’re leaving. They [the Walmart store says] used to do that, but they don’t now.”

Is this right? Charging a business for all the scum it attracts -- people who freely choose to enter the premises?

[GlobalMan]

Walmart is garbage magnet. Not far from me there is Target and a Walmart about 500 meters apart. Yet, there could not be two groups of customers more completely and utterly different. Walmart has every single shitty person within a few mile radius, and the Target has sexy college girls and people dressed like they have jobs. Having the two close together is actually excellent, it helps ensure that the trash of society sticks together in their own garbage dump, which leaves the other full of people who wear 'outside clothes' and have money. The only reason I would say don't burn all Walmarts to the ground is that I want a place for the degenerates to go, and stay out of where I am.

Inside all the Walmarts here there is a mini police station/booth. And Target? Not an officer in sight.

[Only One Man]

The stereotype of WalMart shoppers being fat, dumb, obnoxious, worthless pieces of human garbage is more accurate than any other stereotype about any other group of people. That being said, I'm glad WalMart exists because it makes it a hell of a lot easier to avoid these disgusting slobs.

[porscheguy]

(08-19-2015 12:26 AM)2Wycked Wrote:  

Is this right? Charging a business for all the scum it attracts -- people who freely choose to enter the premises?

If it were any other business causing that much of a drain, they would skip the step of billing them for the public resources they consume, and go straight to shutting them down.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

A Walmart sucks dry every local community financially. It attracts people far and wide, contributes directly to local shops being closed and also in addition attracts crime and the lowest levels of society. There are plenty of studies out claiming that every Walmart makes the local population 10-30% poorer after some time. The local feedback-loop of money is interrupted. It's similar to what would happen if a giant Chinese company opened shop, undercut everyone on everything and then transferred the proceeds back to China. Walmart is almost as bad as that.

Walmart as a business is smart, but the sheer market power of it would already fit trust-busting regulations. One of the many shortcomings of capitalism is the concentration of market turnover in the hands of one or several parties. For the more or less free market to function you need ever vigilant authorities at the top who bust that monopoly or oligopoly. But that has long been abandoned, since the corporations have taken over those regulating authorities.

[Patriarch]

I don't think my contribution will be as insightful as Zelcorpion's, but this thread made me remember People of Walmart. Spent an hour at lunch browsing; made me REALLY miss America.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Ok, but if WalMart is closed or enhanced with tons of security, won't these people causing trouble at it just move on to the next nearest supermarket? This seems like fighting smoke instead of fire.

[eradicator]

Right, it's a band aid solution at best, it does nothing to actually reduce crime, just crime at one particular store.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

(08-19-2015 03:59 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

Ok, but if WalMart is closed or enhanced with tons of security, won't these people causing trouble at it just move on to the next nearest supermarket? This seems like fighting smoke instead of fire.

Walmart attracts people incl. criminals from an extremely wide area. If you close it then the same people won't travel far and wide and congregate on the local small supermarket. Closing it would end a significant portion of the problems and the mayor is correct.

What also Walmart does on the back-end of the spectrum is the incredible pressure it exerts on the farmers, mid- and small-level production companies. Effectively their huge market strength gives them the power to pressure many US companies into near-bankruptcy cost-cutting. Those cost cuts will be transferred to US employees via wage-freeze, decreased benefits and job transfers to China as mid-size companies can no longer compete otherwise. In a strange way consumers become poorer because of such companies and then can only afford to buy at Walmart later on - it's a vicious cycle. (Never mind the added costs of social security, crime fighting etc. that gets transferred to the tax-payer.)

Essentially Walmart means short-term gain and long-term loss for 99,9% of the population. Such a corporation should long have been busted and only allowed to open their stores in huge metropolitan areas where their influences are mitigated. Also after studying their already big market pressure it might be even now necessary to split Walmart into competing companies (with the Waltons being forced to sell their shares and not keep them like the Rockefellers did - keep in mind that I am no socialist and I don't want the Waltons to get their property confiscated - they should get fair market prices and invest somewhere else which is no big deal really). The reason is more due to their even more destructive power on the supplier-side which impacts American jobs directly.

[The Beast1]

Walmart isn't the problem. It's the city's welfare programs creating the trash that come into the stores.

You think closing wally world down and opening up Whole Foods, some stupid running store, and a Starbucks will remove their underclass problem? They'll just congregate elsewhere.

What a bunch of idiots. Walmart will just close up shop and leave town. No new businesses will come in place, especially with such a shitty public government.

[Suits]

(08-19-2015 05:44 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  

You think closing wally world down and opening up Whole Foods, some stupid running store, and a Starbucks will remove their underclass problem? They'll just congregate elsewhere.

I'd prefer the people who go to Walmart over the people who go to Starbucks.

[Bones707]

For as much as I hate Walmart, I don't agree with closing down that mega-retailer full of Chinese made crap. As others have mentioned, it keeps the dregs of society in one place (keeping them away from stores like Target and others of the like where I go shopping). However, that corporation should be broken up Standard Oil style.

[Dr. Howard]

(08-19-2015 03:59 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

Ok, but if WalMart is closed or enhanced with tons of security, won't these people causing trouble at it just move on to the next nearest supermarket? This seems like fighting smoke instead of fire.

I agree with this, I don't think the walmart bashing is warranted. For example here in east tennessee I'd say "if you think walmart is bad, you ain't never been to a dollar general"

Dollar general's dot the countryside, within walking distance to trailer parks and for their customers going to walmart is a special occasion to get dressed up for and they all have to pile into the minvan of the 1 person that has a working vehicle to get here. The dollar generals are ALWAYS getting robbed by meth additcts and attract lunatics.

That being said, there are 4 different walmarts here in town to go to and the only really 'bad' ones are near the bad neighborhoods. The walmart near the rich side of town has mainly target moms and the one on the south side of town has people sleeping in their cars, eating produce off the shelves and beating their kids in the aisles.

If the mayor closed down walmart, it would just spread the crime out to whatever. Its not a walmart problem, its a poverty/crime problem.

[DannyAlberta]

(08-19-2015 05:44 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  

Walmart isn't the problem. It's the city's welfare programs creating the trash that come into the stores.

You think closing wally world down and opening up Whole Foods, some stupid running store, and a Starbucks will remove their underclass problem? They'll just congregate elsewhere.

What a bunch of idiots. Walmart will just close up shop and leave town. No new businesses will come in place, especially with such a shitty public government.

Part of the problem may be welfare trash I agree, but Walmart has to bear some of the blame for attracting that kind of clientèle. Indeed it appears to be part of their business model. From the wikipedia entry on US food stamps:

Quote:

In addition to local town merchants, national retailers are starting to take in an increasing large percentage of SNAP benefits. For example, "Walmart estimates it takes in about 18% of total U.S. outlays on food stamps."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplement...ce_Program

Say what? Walmart is taking in 18 cents on every dollar spent on food stamps? That is direct US taxpayer subsidization. For Walmart. The hell? (For the record, 18% of Federal outlays for the food stamp program in 2013 was over $12 billion.)

They are an extremely successful company and should not be getting any profit from Federal Government largesse. To me that's just unbelievable. Walmart should be getting skewered for this by both the left and the right!

Maybe you want to take the "stigma" out of being poor to allow people on the dole to shop wherever they want and in order to stretch their food stamps for the best value, but the taxation directed at Walmart better damn well take into account that a huge influx of their business is contributed to by the taxpayer.

This is just more evidence that incremental socialism is big business for the elite.

[MrXY]

A mile from me, a Walmart and a Target sit directly across a street from each other. They are different worlds- the Target is pleasant with lots of eye candy, but in order to enter the Walmart I have to mentally prepare myself and hopefully get there in the morning before the scum have stirred from their hovels.

The people and scenes I see in Walmart I view as indicators of how far societal decay has advanced in the US. My hypothesis is that as cultural collapse proceeds, the deleterious effects fall hardest on the lower classes. Most don't have the combination of intelligence, values, habits and mores inculcated in the higher classes, and require more external pressure from society to regulate their behavior. When that pressure is relaxed, as occurs in periods of cultural degeneracy, they revert rather easily and quickly to more brutish forms of behavior. I'm speaking here mostly of what the Marxists would call the "lumpenproletariat", not so much the respectable working class, though it has had some negative effect on them as well. The result is the squalid appearances and behaviors on display at Walmart.

Class differences are starker in every way now than I ever recall seeing in the past and the classes may be more different now than ever in American history. This, along with the growing multiethnic demographics, is causing a noticeable Third Worldization of the US, in which people to the extent their finances allow are self segregating into enclaves where they live, socialize, and school their children, and if possible work, and wall out metaphorically and sometimes physically the undesirables. This is the traditional solution to the lessening of security and community that occurs during periods of societal decay.

[Sonsowey]

You see the end result of unbridled free markets: The People of Wal Mart

[kbell]

Unbridled free markets? Where? There is tons of regulation in the US.

I'm surprised nobody commented on that mom in the wheel chair. Quite agile when she got her butt off the scooter.

[crupiea]

We used to have a Target right next to out Walmart. The target went under and is now a big vacant building while Walmart is busier than ever.

I am a big Walmart fan, shop there all the time and like it.

They are the only big company that would move into the worst neighborhoods and hire the locals. Plus they are one of the top users of solar energy in America as almost all of their stores have solar panels on their roofs.

They get a bum rap because people like the Obamas are pushing how great Target is to everyone. Of course on can only assume its because Target is contributing to them somehow and Walmart is not.

Target actually pays its workers less than Walmart does too.

Dont get me wrong, i like target too, its cleaner aisles are wider but also more expensive for the same stuff.

[The Beast1]

Honestly Target is just as bad as Walmart. Same crap made in the same Chinese sweatshops.

[Ziltoid]

Wal-Mart doesn't attract or create uniquely disgusting people... Everyone shops at Wal-Mart. White, Black, brown, young, old, poor, middle class, rich.
A trip to Wal-Mart is like a great sightseeing microcosm of the general population. People that shop at Wal-Mart seem disgusting because of the volume of people that shop there, and because Americans in general are disgusting.
Attracting fat people and criminals... what? Don't understand this logic at all.
What's going to have a higher crime rate? A Wal-Mart in Laguna Niguel, or a Wal-Mart in Flint?
What's going to have fatter people? A Wal-Mart in Little Rock, or a Wal-Mart in Boston?

As to the 'Wal-Mart destroys local economies' stuff... Who's fault is that, really?
Nobody in history has ever been forced to shop at a Wal-Mart. Consumers decided they wanted to shop at big box stores, and not at mom n pop outfits. For better or worse, Wal-Mart is a big company only because people chose make them a big company. How are dumb and arbitrary regulations or taxes supposed to fix that? Get real.

I live basically in the middle of fucking nowhere, but even here I am within driving distance of: a family run bakery, family owned orchards and produce farms, locally owned auto parts stores, locally owned electronics stores, a jeweler & watch repair shop run by some singular dude in his 80s, even a locally owned boutique tailor... And of course, about 6 Wal-Marts in various directions. People seem to have plenty of options, even now. When I want to save money, there's Wal-Mart, when I want a personal relationship with the shop owner and perhaps a buying experience with a bit more character, there are local stores.

[godfather dust]

Shooting yourself over shoplifting is ridiculous. It's probably anywhere from a fine to under a year in prison depending on the item.

[GlobalMan]

(08-19-2015 12:34 PM)Ziltoid Wrote:  

Wal-Mart doesn't attract or create uniquely disgusting people... Everyone shops at Wal-Mart. White, Black, brown, young, old, poor, middle class, rich.

I think you're right in an overall sense. As in, somewhere there are all those varied people. It completely depends on where you live. Here, there are not all those types at Walmart- It is mostly one type, the type most people are describing. As I said in my post, there is Walmart and Target right across from each other and the people in each are completely different. Night and day different, I do not see either of those groups in the other store. And its the same comparing the two stores at any of their locations here. There is a permanent police booth in Walmarts here. There isn't anywhere else. Why is there the difference? I don't know exactly. But there definitely is.

Maybe if you live in a rural area it will result in all different types at Walmart, but in a large city that is not my experience. Its one thing to not have much money or be struggling, have a tough life...its another to act like an ass and be trashy, uncaring of the people around you, rude, filthy etc. I've lived in poorer parts of Bangkok and Bogota, the people there had less money than anyone at Walmart, yet they were polite, had dignity, were clean, etc.

[Dr. Howard]

(08-19-2015 11:19 AM)MrXY Wrote:  

A mile from me, a Walmart and a Target sit directly across a street from each other. They are different worlds- the Target is pleasant with lots of eye candy, but in order to enter the [b]Walmart I have to mentally prepare myself and hopefully get there in the morning before the scum have stirred from their hovels.

.... self segregating into enclaves where they live, socialize, and school their children, and if possible work, and wall out metaphorically and sometimes physically the undesirables. This is the traditional solution to the lessening of security and community that occurs during periods of societal decay.

I disagree with the notion that because you see the sideshow freaks at walmart, then the US is overflowing with poverty. Walmart is the only reason you see these people, because walmart is like the 'great community melting pot' and everyone shops there.

Pre-walmart these people existed, but they kept to their neighborhood, or trailer park and you kept to yours. I remember as a kid the 'ghetto mall', the 'poor people grocery store', the 'poor people department store (Biway for nostalgic Ontarians)'. We never went there because thats where the poor people bought $1 plastic shoes. Now Walmart is everybody's grocery store so you don't just see your local neighbourhood when you are out shopping, you see your entire city. From rich to poor.

[Easy_C]

Notice the original action.

It's about MONEY. It may very well be the case that they're spending enough police resources that the Mayor sees an opportunity to lucratively bill WalMart and make a quick buck.

[Captain Gh]

(08-19-2015 03:49 AM)Sweet Pea Wrote:  

I don't think my contribution will be as insightful as Zelcorpion's, but this thread made me remember People of Walmart. Spent an hour at lunch browsing; made me REALLY miss America.

Ah I like but at the same time regret reading your post! Clicking on the link People of Wal Mart is like seeing a 100 car crash that you simply cannot keep your eyes away from it! Damn there's some messes in that thing!!