Or one could call this Canadians Behaving Badly.
Two incidents made the news here in recent days, both
involving bad behaviour. One incident spread the blame among a bunch of
nitwits. The other? Well, it’s more or less a criminal act that might also be the
act of someone who isn’t quite playing with a full deck of cards. Both involve
being in a retail setting, and both ended up making me shake my head with
dismay.
The first of these took place in a parking lot of a Costco
in the city of Mississauga, which lies to the west of Toronto in the region of
Peel. That’s a city I know reasonably well- I grew up to the west of there out
in the countryside. It seems a small group of shoppers, all of whom were eager
to park in pretty much the same spot close to the entrance, went from yelling
at each other to brawling with each other. Grown adults, men and women,
slugging each other and scrapping like they were all drunk and pissed off.
Hell, maybe they were drunk.
One wonders what occupies the mind of such a cranky sourpants
obsessed about getting the best nearby parking space for a Costco. It’s not as
if giant big box stores like this are really worth getting into in the first place- one of my versions of Hell
would be a giant big box store where you’re doomed to wander forever. But when
you’re visiting such a place, perhaps for 300 boxes of cereal, or whatever the
hell kind of bulk product you’re interested in (full disclosure: I’ve never
been in a Costco), parking near the entrance is a really dumb idea.
Not that the sort of people who get into fights over a
parking spot would realize it’s a really dumb idea.
No, if you’re parking near the entrance, you’re subjecting
your car to the very strong possibility that it’s going to get dinged by
shopping carts from some half-witted knuckle dragger unloading his dozens of
bags of salt and vinegar chips. It’s better to park further away from the
building where there’s actual spaces and less stray shopping carts. Not that
this would occur to morons dumb
enough to pick fights with other
morons in a parking lot.
And it’s not as if parking close to the entrance is really
going to save them that much walking time. I mean, big box stores by their very
nature are inherently places where you’re going to be walking. And walking. And
walking some more. Did I mention the walking? They’re big enough that you need
maps to get around the cavernous spaces for whatever you came in for in the
first place. So you’re going to be getting your exercise... unless of course
you’re driving one of those golf carts and beeping at people to get out of your
way.
So here we have it- a bunch of suburban halfwits, slugging
it out and getting caught on video and uploaded to Youtube, acting like six
year old brats screaming and throwing tantrums because they’re not getting
their own way or being told they have to finish every scrap of those beets, because there are children starving in Africa. These are supposed to be adults? Were they not paying attention when they were growing up? Of
course not. And given that they’re doing this sort of thing, it’s too late at
this point in their lives to change. They're stuck in permanent stupid asshole mode.
The other incident happened in the town nearest to where I
grew up. Georgetown’s a town in the northern reaches of Halton Region, which
lies west of Peel. This incident brought in the police and made the newspapers
because of the amount of violence and the rage involved. Only instead of a
group of halfwits all having a mutual stupid moment, this involved someone who
may or may not be playing with a full deck of cards. It’s a pretty reasonable
suggestion given the circumstances.
The setting? A Wal-Mart, of course. The store is one of the
anchors in the lone mall in town (at least I assume it’s still the only mall in town). A Wal-Mart would be a
typical sort of place for such a meltdown, if you think about it. Wal-Martians
are a peculiar lot of people, after all.
A thirty nine year old woman, named in the papers, was
arrested after attacking a child-
knocking out a tooth in a six year old girl. Yes, you read that right,
attacking a girl.
According to the reports, it was totally unprovoked. She
then proceeded to carry on dashing through the store, attacking four other
people before being arrested and hauled out by the police. A comment on social
media came from a witness, who said it took several officers to escort her out,
and she was yelling the whole time.
That’s not the act
of someone who’s got it all together, mentally speaking. Whether or not this
woman is mentally ill will have to be determined.
This is the sort of thing that inspires a whole lot of
chatter on social media. Some parents would be inclined to say that if she’d done
that to their child, there wouldn’t be enough of that person left to bury.
Others, more wisely, note that their instincts would be the protection and
comfort of their child rather than running after the lunatic who’d already done
what she did. Many were foaming at the mouth about the concept of someone who’s
mentally ill and thus not criminally responsible getting off on charges- even
though at that point formal charges weren’t part of the picture.
There was one comment in the mix that particularly bothered
me. A troll by the name of Lorne, supposedly a veterinarian, came up with this
comment:
No one has had the courage to state that if the child
or children in question were running around the store misbehaving as most of
today's parents are inclined to allow, then perhaps it's the parents of said
children who should have their teeth knocked out and then be banned from the
premises. Why is it we have come to believe that rude uncontrolled behaviour is
acceptable just because it's a child ??? Grow up. Train and discipline your
children.
As you can imagine, no one was impressed by the troll. One
person suggested by that logic, if he didn’t like how someone was behaving,
that gave him the right to just beat the crap out of them, no matter if it was
a child, disabled person, or elderly person- any degree of irritation was
sufficient cause. These comments I agreed with.
Only an intellectually below-average, uncivilized
person would genuinely think that a child running around a store makes it okay
to grab them and throw them to the ground. That doesn't teach children to
behave, especially if they don't know why they're being attacked. It only
teaches them that psychopaths exist in society.
She violently attacked 5 people for no reason,
including a 6 year old girl. Or are we to assume that all 5 people were acting
up? Besides, there is never a reason to grab a 6 year old by the hair and throw
them to the ground. And to your second point, if she had done this anywhere
else in the world, there is a good chance she might have been beaten to death
by an angry mob before the police showed up.
For my own part, I had this to say:
Wow, Lorne. I mean, just wow. I know I don't
particularly care for children, but when I see kids misbehaving and throwing
tantrums, my reaction is to just walk away, not say something like the parents
should have their teeth kicked out and banned from the store. You, pal, really
are an asshole.
I find myself wondering if colleagues at Lorne’s
veterinarian practice, whoever that might be, understand what sort of person he
is. I know I certainly wouldn’t want to work with such a complete asshole.
As to the suspect herself? Well, time will have to tell if
she’s mentally unbalanced, was just having a horrible day, or is in fact by
nature a thoroughly unpleasant person but yet of sound mind and capable of
standing trial. It’s a different matter
with the Costco parking lot brawlers, who should know better, but clearly were
raised to be petulant morons with no consideration for others.
I can just see it now. The same kind of tacky tabloid
producers who brought the world the Bumfight videos (yes, those are real) coming
up with a new home video idea.
Wal-Martians Gone
Nuts, The Thunderdome Edition.
