Sneaker Stampede Stupidity

More on yesterday's utterly disgraceful sneaker stampede. The last line of this column by Kelly Dwyer was quoted on ESPN radio this morning.

"Michael Jordan fans and a whole lot of utter and absolute morons descended upon malls across America early Friday morning to push each other over and destroy property in order to buy some basketball shoes.
The re-release of the Air Jordan 11 can hardly be called a 're-release,' because Nike and Jordan Brand attempted (and succeeded) to dish up some needless hype and intrigue by only releasing 100 pairs of the shoes to certain stores. Twenty-five years into this game, both companies knew that the limited supply would result in long lines and potential chaos as shoppers attempted to grab a pair, but Nike and Jordan Brand haven't always been on the cutting edge when it comes to caring about anything more than the bottom line, have they?
Why care, when you can drive people to this, as reported by ABC:
    Police had to smash the windows of a car to get two toddlers out after a woman had left them there to go buy the shoes. She was taken into custody when she returned, according to the AP.
The Indianapolis Star was at one particularly ugly scene:
    'The door broke and was hanging by a hinge and people were squeezing in anyway,' Asia Coates said 'People were falling down.'
    She said one woman was knocked down, got back up and was the second person to buy the shoes.
    Andre Mitchell, 28, Indianapolis, said he stepped over downed shoppers. 'It wasn't personal, it was business,' Mitchell explained.
No, it's not business. You're just a moron."

What I find appalling is that people are blaming Michael Jordan, Nike, and the shoe stores but not blaming these thugs themselves! Nobody forced them to buy these shoes. some commenters are blaming "the rich" for buying the sneakers. Excuse me, but these stampeders didn't exactly resemble Wall Street bankers. Also, someone ought to ask them how wasting money on sneakers is going to improve their lives. I doubt hiring managers will be impressed when you show up at an interview wearing these. And please, don't insult our intelligence by complaining about how poor and hungry you are.