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Portables (Apple) Businesses The Almighty Buck Hardware Apple

Henrico County iBook Sale Creates iRiot 850

Posted by Zonk from the not-a-pretty-sight dept.
pikester writes "What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them? You get an iStampede of course! Add into the mix one guy who watches too much wrestling and one gal who re-lived her first Backstreet Boys concert by wetting herself and you'll being looking for video of the whole thing. CNN has some extra details as well." From the article: "Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting for hours in line. When the gates opened, it became a terrifying mob scene. People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd."
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Henrico County iBook Sale Creates iRiot More

Henrico County iBook Sale Creates iRiot

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  • Reminds me of a song title (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "In the ghetto...."

    • Re:Reminds me of a song title (Score:5, Funny)

      by rayde ( 738949 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:56PM (#13332909) Homepage
      my favorite quote from TFA:

      Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

      "I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

      "They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

      • 'round these parts we call that assault. Assault is a crime; cutting in is just rude.

      • Re:Reminds me of a song title (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @06:18PM (#13334807) Homepage
        Ahh reminders of exactly how big of assholes the people we share this planet with are :-)

        My first exposureto the reality that is my fellow human beings was when I was 18 at the DAyton Hamfest.

        A moron in an airplane threw a ream of papers out of the plane on a RAINY day each paper had a 1 dollar bill stapled to it. the ream of papers did not seperate, it fell as one brick 200 feet until it hit me in the head.

        What did my fellow humans and americans do? See if I was ok as I was lying there bleeding? Nope they trampled me trying to get to the one dollar bills.

        From that day on I learned that deep down, our fellow humans really are dirtballs and do not give a rats ass about anything but themselves.

        If anyone is suprised at all by thisthen they are either fools that have been insulated from reality or had an IQ below 60. (selling the ibooks for $50.00 tells me the latter was true)

        • Re:Reminds me of a song title (Score:3, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          A moron in an airplane threw a ream of papers out of the plane on a RAINY day each paper had a 1 dollar bill stapled to it. the ream of papers did not seperate, it fell as one brick 200 feet until it hit me in the head.

          Is this why you're called Lumpy now?

    • Re:Reminds me of a song title (Score:5, Funny)

      by HTTP Error 403 403.9 ( 628865 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:13PM (#13333098)
      I am waiting for someone to tell me that these iBooks are overpriced and they can get a Dell laptop for $40.

  • That's right ladies and gentlemen (Score:5, Funny)

    by Loco3KGT ( 141999 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:27PM (#13332538)
    That's my state's citizens, neighbors, and friends at their best!

    I couldn't be more proud.

    *tear*

  • This story wont get many posts. (Score:5, Funny)

    by deft ( 253558 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:27PM (#13332541) Homepage
    Everyone is at the sale...

  • Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse (Score:5, Insightful)

    by N8F8 ( 4562 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:28PM (#13332550)
    The obvious point here should be that the countyr was sellign them too cheap. Wasting taxpayer dollars. They should have sold them on ebay [ebay.com] where they could have gotten much more than $50 without the liability of riots.

    • Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bnenning ( 58349 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#13332578)
      Exactly. Government officials ignorant of basic economics, what are the odds?
    • The obvious point here should be that the county was sellign them too cheap

      Exactly - this obviously wasn't an efficient marketplace. It's possible the county was doing it almost as a public service, underpricing for the citizens of the county. Of course most of those people rushing for the PCs probably plan on selling them anyways - watch for a rash of iBook auctions.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse (Score:5, Insightful)

        by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:45PM (#13332768) Journal
        It's terrible to see people behave like this, and I also fault the authorities for failing to provide adequate crowd control.

        If the people would have behaved themselves there wouldn't have been a need for crowd control.

        Unless you're trying to imply that human beings are incapable of acting like the most intelligent creature on the planet as some say we are.

        • Seriously, check out the group mentality of baggage pickup.

          Everyone stands a little ways off, but the MOMENT the belt turns on it turns into a shoving match where EVERYONE MUST BE NEXT TO THE BELT!

          Instead of standing 3 steps back, waiting till luggage that looks like yours comes by, walking up, checking it, leaving or pulling it...

          Now they get into shoving matches to yank the luggage free and knock their 'neighbors' (whom get pissed off) while trying to remove said dead weight.

          So yes, people act responsibly? Never. It's not possible. Any single person will act responsible, but the moment you remove the threat of punishment a free-for-all mentality of "I can get away with this, and tough shit" is born.

          • Re:Behave themselves? Look at morons in an Airport (Score:5, Funny)

            by maxpublic ( 450413 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:40PM (#13333367) Homepage
            There's always a small group of folks who stand back and let the herd struggle with one another over baggage. We lean against the wall, amuse ourselves over the antics of our fellow human beings, and then go pick up our bags after the crowd thins out. Which takes what? All of five or ten minutes? In exchange for the free amusement?

            Max

    • Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse (Score:5, Insightful)

      by miahrogers ( 34176 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:52PM (#13332854) Homepage
      The computers should have been auctioned or a lottery could have been set up to allow only a certain number to purchase them. The way it was setup was very irresponsible -- like throwing 150,000 dollars cash into the middle of a busy street!! (Really, if you guess a $200 market value on each of these that's ($200-$50)*$1000=$150,000 dollars into the street).
  • OMG! Zerg Rush!

  • more information (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ankou ( 261125 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:29PM (#13332557)
    I had submitted this article this morning, with a little more information in case people were interested here is what I had posted:
    Henrico Co. Schools of VA [k12.va.us] decided to change laptop suppliers at the end of their contract with Apple, opting instead for a contract deal with Dell and Microsoft. The result was a couple thousand laptops of no use. In a first attempt, Henrico Co. [henrico.va.us] was going to sell laptops in a free for all at $50 dollars each, but subsequent meetings and enraged tax payers made them change to limiting the sale (at least this first sale) to Henrico citizens and tax payers. The sale occurred at the Richmond International Raceway [richmondra...omplex.com] where 1000 laptops would be given on a first come first serve basis with proof of residency/tax payments. The facilitators of the event decided to close the main gates of the area until 7 AM and begin the sale at 9 AM. This did little to deter people arriving as early as 1 AM and circling the area until the main gates opened. At 6:54 AM the main gates were opened and a massive stampede of over 12 thousand attendants for the event fought to be the first in line. Injuries (albeit minor according to the Times Dispatch) and chaos ensued. One unconfirmed report I was given by an attendee was of a lady who.s ankle was broken and her baby carriage trampled by the sheer number of people shoving to get through the gates. Police support was supposedly small with off duty officers working, the event planners obviously underestimating the popularity of this event. The details of the event [k12.va.us] including the specs for the iBook (12 inch, G3 500 MHz) can be seen at this posting on the Henrico Co Schools website. In the fall there is to be another sale of which no restriction will be made on buyers, but after today.s incident, one could only imagine that it will differ highly from the chaos of today. Photos of the scene can be viewed at the article in the Richmond Times Dispatch website [timesdispatch.com].
    • People are trampling baby carriages for a pos laptop like that? I doubt it's powerful enough to play pr0n movies.

      Sad.

    • Aftermath of fraud? (Score:5, Informative)

      by tgibbs ( 83782 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:57PM (#13332912)
      Of course, the true problem is that the iBooks were sold at a price well below their true value.

      My theory is the following: To get the money to purchase new laptops from Dell and Microsoft, somebody had to represent that the existing, perfectly-good iBooks were obsolete and near-worthless. If they had been offered at auction, they would have sold at a much higher price, exposing the fraud. So instead, they were offered to the public at fire-sale prices. The riot was the predictable outcome.

      In fact, it is hard to imagine what student use would have required anything more powerful than a 500 MHz iBook. The only one that leaps to mind is video editing, and somehow I doubt that a large number of students needed to do that on their laptops.
      • The Henrico county residents convinced the school officials that they were entitled to the laptops because their taxes had paid for them in the first place. That's why the purchaser's had to bring proof of residency in order to buy them.

        After four years of use by public school kids, I wonder what kind of shape the iBooks were in. In my experience, kids are very hard on the things they get their hand on.

        I got the feeling that the county school system was trying to "give back" to the community. Too bad it

        • Re:Aftermath of fraud? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by tgibbs ( 83782 )
          The Henrico county residents convinced the school officials that they were entitled to the laptops because their taxes had paid for them in the first place. That's why the purchaser's had to bring proof of residency in order to buy them.

          However, in reality it looks like it happened the other way around. Initially, the sale was announced with no restrictions. Only after locals protested was the sale restricted to residents.

          After four years of use by public school kids, I wonder what kind of shape the iBooks
      • sold at a price well below their true value.

        If I read the articles correctly, the local taxpayers asked the school district to sell the Laptops for cheap, since the local taxpayers already paid for the laptops.

        The real problem is that none of the organizers never thought of cancelling the sale-- when you look out the gate and see 5000+ people, maybe the thing has gotten out of hand and it's time to cancel the sale.

    • Re:more information (Score:5, Funny)

      by ethx1 ( 532391 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:04PM (#13332988)
      It's like that MasterCard ad. But backwards.

      Beating down losers with a folding chair: Priceless.
      Urinating on yourself: Priceless.
      Driving a car though a mob: Priceless
      Loosing your shoe in the sweltering heat: Priceless.
      iBook: $50

    • Re:more information (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Obfuscant ( 592200 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:29PM (#13333252)
      Henrico Co. Schools of VA decided to change laptop suppliers ... The result was a couple thousand laptops of no use.

      Excuse me, but how does a decision to change suppliers of future purchases make currently owned equipment "of no use?" Do the iBooks figure out that their new brothers are not Apple and suddenly stop working? Does the software on them suddenly stop functioning?

      Failing to plan for a herd of vultures rioting to get almost free computers is not the crime here. The crime is the attitude that perfectly functional computing hardware is suddenly "of no use", especially coming from a taxpayer funded institution. And certainly when that institution typically cries because they don't have enough money.

      There is no reason not to use the iBooks until they croak, and then replace them with new Dells. It would teach kids that there really is more to life than Microsoft and Intel, and allow them a choice of which OS they preferred. Schoolkids are not processing gigabyte datasets that requires terrabyte disks and gigahertz CPUs. They're browsing the web and typing book reports. I'm sure an iBook can handle that.

      If I were a resident of that county, the next time the schools put a millage up for a vote I'd remind my neighbors of the profligate waste demonstrated by this nonsense and campaign for a no vote. And a replacement of the moronic school board.

      • Re:more information (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jc42 ( 318812 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @04:06PM (#13333689) Homepage Journal
        Excuse me, but how does a decision to change suppliers of future purchases make currently owned equipment "of no use?"

        You haven't worked out many multi-computer deals, have you?

        The special-price deal they got with Dell probably included the condition that they get rid of all their non-Dell computers.

        Salesmen routinely make deals like this. Usually they're "privately-arranged" deals that are not explicit in the written contract. But the contract is carefully phrased so that they can legally demand more money if they discover any of the old computers on the premises. Some admins resist this sort of deal; many don't.

        (Dell and Microsoft aren't the only companies that play games like this. A year or so back, I got into a bit of a "discussion" with Apple's support people. They insisted that I disable the linux machines on my network before they'd help with a problem. The problem wasn't even related to the other computers; it was a difficulty getting a Mac to talk to a printer via an Airport Extreme. They wouldn't accept isolating the Mac+airport+printer from the network; they insisted that the linux boxes not be on the local network, and refused to talk to me until I disabled them all. This did backfire on them a bit, though. I recommended to management that we not use Apple equipment as infrastructure in in our network, and described this support problem as my reason. They accepted my recommendation.)

  • Wow (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fahrvergnuugen ( 700293 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:29PM (#13332560) Homepage
    I usually only piss myself over new apple products...
  • > Add into the mix one guy who watches too much wrestling and one gal who re-lived her first Backstreet Boys concert by wetting herself and you'll being looking for video of the whole thing.

    As a matter of fact, no, iWont.

  • One each? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them?"

    Looks a lot like one each to me...
  • were tickets for a Who concert available as well as iBooks.

  • better links and pictures of riots (Score:5, Informative)

    by 0110011001110101 ( 881374 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#13332579) Journal
    i posted this story earlier, heres some better links than CNNS regurge crap

    local richmond newspaper link [timesdispatch.com]

    another local link with slideshow pictures [timesdispatch.com]

  • Shows us how far we haven't come... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jo_ham ( 604554 ) <joham999@ g m a i l . com> on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#13332581)
    Whenever someone does something like this (selling something for much less than its value) scenes like these always happen.

    Ikea did this with a new store in the UK, selling a £500 sofa for £50 and mob scenes resulted, with people fighting in the aisles, people trampled and people stealing sofas off feeble old people who were unable to hang onto their purchase.

    When it comes to a bargain, I'm amazed people don't pack heat before setting off for the store.

  • Under thought and over publicized (Score:5, Informative)

    by raolin ( 512968 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#13332583)
    As geeks living in the area my friends and I were interested in getting some cheap computers to set up as servers and various low intensity jobs. The local papers and Henrico County made such a huge deal over this that I am really not that surprised by the turnout. They were selling off used and discarded low end macs, and making it sound like the deal of a lifetime.

    I personally think the county would have been better off finding a way to distribute them to low income families and possibly offering classes in their use, but what do I know.

  • Ibooks are like crack.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by rice0067 ( 220981 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#13332584)
    All white and promising good stuff. then you get really disappointed by the quality and want to knife your dealer.

  • Memo to His Steveness: (Score:3, Funny)

    by Hawthorne01 ( 575586 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:30PM (#13332585)

    From: pschiller@apple.com
    To:sjobs@apple.com

    Steve,
    I think we've found the perfect price point to really boost Mac sales. I'll have marketing look into it, but as best I can figure, we'll lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume.

    See you in Paris next month,

    Phil

  • For those that went there and did that... (Score:5, Funny)

    by slusich ( 684826 ) * <slusich@Nospam.gmail.com> on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:31PM (#13332592)
    Now you can get the tshirt too.
    http://cgi.ebay.com/HENRICO-COUNTY-50-iBook-t-shir t-kicked-in-the-balls_W0QQitemZ8327177210QQcategor yZ15687QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem [ebay.com]
    Seriously, they had to expect this. They should've had a more orderly way to deal with this sale.

  • iDiots? (Score:2, Funny)

    by BikeRacer ( 810473 )
    Come on, doesn't everyone know they found all the golden tickets already?

  • A few obvious questions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by deft ( 253558 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:31PM (#13332600) Homepage
    1. What about those laptops couldnt still run spelling programs? Are the kids teaching programs really running framerates they cant handle? :)

    2. Who is the moron that decided that the school didnt need the $? I'm sure those laptops could have paid for quite a few of the new computers they seem to need.

    3. Any left?

  • New Poll? (Score:5, Funny)

    by __aaitqo8496 ( 231556 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:32PM (#13332606) Journal
    To get a used iBook for $50, I'd be willing to...

    • Throw an elbow
    • Crush a stroller
    • Pee myself
    • Throw an old man into the pavement

  • Um.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by osrevad ( 796763 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:32PM (#13332612)
    What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them?

    You would get everyone living happily ever after with their iBooks. But there were actaully about 3000 people, which changes everything.

  • Wonder if this'll make the county rethink switch? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Generalisimo Zang ( 805701 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:34PM (#13332638)
    They decided to switch from apple ibooks, to machines made by Dell... which is why they had 1000 Apple ibooks to sell.

    After seeing how popular the ibooks are, I wonder if they'll rethink the change to PCs? /hugs my powerbook. //it's shiiiiny. :)
  • you should be wearing one of these [no-contact.com] when you go to these kind of events. You'll have a clear path in no time.

  • Government waste (Score:5, Insightful)

    by linuxwrangler ( 582055 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:37PM (#13332675)
    Weren't these iBooks school district property? I guess it's good to see that the schools in Henrico County are so flush with cash that they can dump their iBooks at what is obviously below market value plus pay for whatever damages and lawsuits may result from their lack of planning.

    I've been at similar mega-sales and all it took to prevent chaos was to pass out numbers to people as they arrive then let people enter in small batches. Problem solved and injuries prevented for the cost of a couple dollars of paper.

  • take this ladies, children, and old men (Score:5, Funny)

    by kidNexus ( 898105 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:44PM (#13332762) Homepage
    first official slashdot post from a $50 iBook.

  • My experience at the sale (Score:4, Informative)

    by bubblewrapgrl ( 189933 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:47PM (#13332786)
    Being a Henrico county resident, I tried to go to the iBook sale this morning. I have younger siblings who could use a computer and this was a pretty good deal for that.

    I got to the Richmond International Raceway where the sale was held at 6:55. It was pretty obvious to me that there was no way I was getting a laptop based on the number of cars trying to get in and the number of people lining up outside. So I left. The police were doing their best to try to keep the siutation under control, but you could tell that it was rapidly getting out of hand just because there were too many people. Driving back home, I think there was at least a good mile or two of cars still trying to get into the sale. I can't imagine how long those people ended up sitting there.

    I'm not sure why more people didn't just decide to leave when the saw the number of people there. I'm also not sure why the county didn't make the price higher. Having it at $100 - $200 would have made a lot of money back for the county and would have discouraged a lot of people. This has to be a net loss in profit for them based on the number of police officers that were there. It could have been handled much better.

    Rumor has it that there may be more laptops laying around (they did give one to every high school student in the county and only sold 1000). Hopefully, they are smarter next time. I guess at least I know where my tax money is being spent...
    • This is the dumbest allocation of taxpayer dollars I've ever heard of. They should just sell the things for market price (get somebody to eBay them for 250-300 bucks a pop) and put that money back into school coffers so that it benefits all the taxpayers.

      Doing this (giving away several hundred dollar laptops for 50 bucks) benefits the 1000 people who happened to show up earliest on this particular day to this sale at the expense of every other taxpayer in the county. And, as you pointed out, the cost when

  • I was there! (Score:5, Informative)

    by The Grey Clone ( 770110 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:51PM (#13332834) Homepage
    I happen to live in the Henrico area, and honestly - a fifty dollar computer is a deal you can't beat. I went there with my mother and my sister, however, after people started running, I just wanted out. I only stayed for my sister.

    It was chaos. The first people who started running, I don't know what they were thinking, but after that, you HAD to run. There is just something about 12,000 people running at you from behind that kind of makes you run away.

    Ended up getting stuck in a huge crowd for several hours, left when the police in riot gear started telling us they only had 300 left.

    I don't know if imageshack likes Slashdot or not, but it's worth a try.

    I took some pictures of the crowd, I'll post them if anyone is interested. Mine aren't as good as the ones from the times dispatch, but they gave a decent view of how many people were packed in.

    • Re:I was there! (Score:5, Informative)

      by The Grey Clone ( 770110 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:02PM (#13332974) Homepage
      Some of my own pictures! I don't know how much imageshack likes Slashdot, but oh well.
      There [imageshack.us] was some sort of line that was formed by the people ariving early in the morning.
      But [imageshack.us] then people started just ignoring the line and wandering around, even forming a second line!
      After [imageshack.us] the mob rush, we got stuck in the huge [imageshack.us] crowd [imageshack.us].
      The people formed a line [imageshack.us] several thousand [imageshack.us] people long!
      Then, the cops in riot gear started doing crowd control, brought in lots of metal baracades [imageshack.us] way too late. There is no way the Henrico County earned money on this sale. There were people getting heat exhaustion, the palms of my hands were turning white from lack of oxygen. It was just horrible, and the worst part of it was that if someone moved, you had to move too. Even if you didn't want to.
      Yeah, it was a riot. Maybe not to the scale of the LA ones, but dayum.
    • I went there with my mother and my sister, however, after people started running, I just wanted out. I only stayed for my sister.

      To hell with your mother, eh?

  • Only Apple (Score:4, Funny)

    by mezron ( 132274 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:55PM (#13332894)
    You just don't get this kind of exitement with Microsoft products ;)

  • Follow up story... (Score:4, Funny)

    by TiggertheMad ( 556308 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @02:55PM (#13332899) Journal
    Most people were disapointed when they got in and discovered that the ibooks were not in fact, cabage patch kids.

  • Assault Charges, anyone? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stanistani ( 808333 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:08PM (#13333039) Homepage Journal
    >Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

    "I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

    "They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

    Hmmm.

    Henrico County Sheriff's Office
    Michael L. Wade, Sheriff
    sheriff@co.henrico.va.us

    Sheriff Mike?
    I got one for ya!

  • Slashdot effect? (Score:3, Funny)

    by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:27PM (#13333237) Homepage
    So THIS is what the Slashdot effect would look like in person eh? heh... wish I could have seen that!

  • Now imagine a line for food... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GPLDAN ( 732269 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:34PM (#13333305)
    This gives you an idea of just how fine a line there is between civilization and complete anarchy. Imagine a fuel crisis much worse than the Carter era, where only a select few can have access to gas each week. Or food shortages. Or a mass bio-hazard.

    Better yet, the bird flu. A mass epidemic. Imagine the scene at hospitals. This is why crisis management and homeland security dollars are important - too bad they are being treated by politicians as just another thing to pork barrel. We spend money buying firefighters in Wyoming HazMat suits and trucks - but a nuke in NYC would be catch us completely un prepared.

    I always enjoy these little reminders of how close the American public is to hysteria.
    • Absolutely, in fact its said that in reality a 'dirty bomb' would be pretty harmless, but the biggest cause of danger would be the panic and anarchy it would create, hampering the clean-up operation - people become selfish at the slightest hint of opportunity or trouble if they think they can save themselves or get something for free. In some cases they are better off doing what they are told, but in those scary scenarios like a nuclear attack you're going to steal the nearest car and not take your foot off

  • Reporting from Henrico.. (Score:4, Informative)

    by cOdEgUru ( 181536 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @03:44PM (#13333408) Homepage Journal
    My Good Lord, I almost relived "War of the Worlds" where people start killing each other for a spot on a Van.

    I got there around 5:45 and the crowd was already over a 1000, snaking along the road for half a mile. It got worse as it got near to 7:00 when the gates were supposed to open. There were hardly 4 law enforcement officers near the gate and even they were hardly prepared for the onslaught at 7:00. More over, even after having over a month to prepare, there was hardly any planning. They could have let people in to the Raceway which had a huge parking lot and used barricades to create a maze like queue. I am positive people would have respected that, but they made people wait in unmanaged queues outside the gate. They could have opened just one gate, and let people trickle in. Instead they opened two gates, one wide enough for cars waiting outside to enter (which they did plus hundreds waiting to pounce) plus they flung open the gates where people were waiting and you bear witness to what ensued by looking at the slideshows on Times dispatch. People ran like as if a pack of hellhounds were at their heels and in less than 30 seconds a "queue" (if you can call it that) formed outside the entrance to the facility which was more like 10 queues side by side.

    People were fainting all around us, fire department did what they could. Swat team in riot gear assembled towards the back of the facility, willing to step in to do what they can if things get more worse. There were still less than 10 law enforcement officers in regular attire trying to manage the crowd. People were unruly, cussing and dropping like flies around us as the heat picked up.

    Towards 9:30, authorities realized they need a plan and put together some barricades and started channeling people inside the facility. It was another 3 hours before I got in and got my hands on one. I am sure Steve jobs will be licking his lips in anticipation of 1000 odd users foraging through his stores..

    Anyway, this was an event that went to hell in a handbasket in 10 seconds straight. Due to bad planning or lack of it, something that could have been organized to the point where the whole thing should have lasted a couple of hours, it turned out in to a free for all, where people, regardless of their social status put a lid on their conscience and returned to more basic instincts.

  • No accurate crowd headcount? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by phillymjs ( 234426 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMstango.org> on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @06:34PM (#13334929) Homepage Journal
    It's a racetrack, for Christ's sake-- you're telling me they didn't have turnstiles with counters on them at the entrances there, like every other friggin' stadium and other large public venue in the country does?

    What a total fiasco. I can't wait until the first civil suit gets filed by one of the people who got injured. You know it's coming, and a nice settlement will result.

    Even if they wouldn't put the things on eBay like anyone with a shred of sense would have, there were still a million better ways to do this than a friggin' battle royale-- for example, why didn't they give out numbered tickets to everyone who showed up before a certain time, and then draw "winners" at random from that group?

    If there will be more of these iBook fire sales, I hope they put some more thought into the execution than they did for this one.

    ~Philly

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