Public displays of knee-jerk reactions

On Black Friday, there were three shopping-related deaths (giving new meaning to the term “shop ’til you drop”). I don’t understand the frenzy that motivates someone to kill for $3 off a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll, but then again there’s a lot I don’t understand about this world. Black Friday typically has some good deals but rarely anything good enough to get me out of bed before 5 am–and certainly nothing worth killing for. Like cattle being chase by a hound, dozens of Wal-Mart customers trampled a man as the store open. And at a Toys-R-Us, two men–both armed–shot each other.

While what happened at that Toys-R-Us is a tragedy (that’s what some would say; I think it’s a good thing when you rid the world full of two bozos who take guns to go toy shopping), I think the overreaction by Toys-R-Us and local police is a bit of a joke. On Saturday, deputies patrolled the Palm Desert store, ensuring there wouldn’t be repeat. Really? Is that necessary? What happened on Black Friday was the perfect storm: a mad rush of shoppers, two armed idiots, and a crowd of people who had to watch the Lions game on TV. No one was in a good mood. I’m not saying it excuses anything that happened–I am saying that extra security and police deputies the next day was complete unnecessary. Did it prevent any more shootings? The PR people would say yes–but considering Toys-R-Us didn’t have massive sales (or shootings) at any point prior in the year, I have to disagree.

That’s the problem with this country: when something horrible happens, the government, corporations, and anyone else involved make it a point of overcompensating immediately for the problem to show the situation has been rectified and fixed. Terrorist fly a couple planes into buildings and for the next three weeks it takes two hours to get past security. Fast-forward to today and it takes two minutes to get through airport security (and I still managed to smuggle a pocket knife on board–twice). It was all a show.

Last month the Big Three CEOs got lambasted for flying in private jets to DC for congressional hearings; this time, you knew they were going to drive. But it’s all just show. When the spotlight is off, those executives will be back to flying.

Knee-jerk reactions are way too common in our world. I wonder if it works–these quick actions to try and “fix” a situation that already happened. Do people fall for it? Do they think the folks at Toys-R-Us are solving the problem of shooting that already happened? Did Toys-R-Us beef up security everywhere…or just the location that had all the television cameras in front of it? What about the police? Palm Dessert deputies were patrolling aisle six instead of the Palm Desert streets. Are we expected to believe that made the city safer?

It’s all just a show–something to ensure the masses that everything is safe and the powers that be are securely in control. In my opinion, it’s a waste of man hours and oxygen. Sure, it would have been nice to prevent the tragedies from occurring in the first place, but you can’t change the past. Some people are dead: deal with it. Leave the dog-and-pony show at the barn.