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If they're not pepper spraying each other or rioting over waffle makers, Black Friday customers are being tasered by cops and being violently arrested for shoplifting.
WAAY reports that cops said they had to use a stun gun to subdue belligerent customer Christopher Blake Pyron at a Wal-Mart in Florence, Ala.
An incident involving pepper spray used at a Walmart in Kinston during Black Friday is under investigation.
Authorities say the off-duty officer was hired by the store to help with security and was trying to subdue a disturbance and make an arrest when he used his pepper spray.
Authorities say the off-duty officer was hired by the store to help with security and was trying to subdue a disturbance and make an arrest when he used his pepper spray.
People camped out, lined up and pushed through the doors when stores opened as early as midnight for early bird specials this Black Friday.
Everyone was looking for a good deal on that holiday gift, but not everyone was in a giving mood. A small scuffle reportedly broke out at one sale in the Monroeville Mall.
Some consider Thanksgiving to be the start of the holiday season, but dedicated shoppers say it's today, and they were out in full force.
© Joe Austin, ABC 4 News
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office says dispatchers were contacted at 5 p.m. Wednesday by a Florida military agency about an emergency alert beacon transmitting from an area along the Dirty Devil River.
Police tell KTVX of Salt Lake City a helicopter spotted the man stuck in a thick, muddy, wet substance.
© Reuters/Anthony Bolante Chris Natale (left) and Rhiannon Hemsted, both of Seattle, carry signs while they along with dozens of Occupy Seattle protestors demonstrate during the 'Black Friday' holiday shopping rush at the Wal-mart retail store in Renton, Washington on November 25, 2011.
In Los Angeles, city leaders hope the seven-week-old Occupy LA encampment will disband sometime next week. More than 480 tents were erected on the lawns of City Hall. The camp has remained largely peaceful since police and city officials established a relationship early on based on dialogue instead of dictates.
Thursday, activist Teri Adaju, 46, said she typically serves dinner to homeless people on Thanksgiving and knows that many at the Los Angeles encampment were just that.
In San Francisco, 400 occupiers at a plaza in the financial district were served traditional Thanksgiving fixings sent by the renowned Glide Memorial Church to volunteers and supporters of the movement fighting social and economic inequality.
"We are thankful that we are, first and foremost, in a country where we can protest," said the Rev. Cecil Williams, the founder of Glide and a fixture in the city's activist community.
Oakland police say that when a truck driver tried to deliver a portable restroom to protesters Thursday at Frank Ogawa Plaza, officers ordered the driver to leave because he had no permit. Police and about 150 protesters squared off; one person was arrested.
© KHNL-TVOccupy Honolulu protesters demonstrate at a Wal-Mart store in Honolulu early Friday
Ten Occupy Oklahoma City protesters were arrested Friday morning after a protest at a Walmart store in Del City, Okla., The Oklahoman reported.
Del City police Capt. Jody Suit told the newspaper that officers working off-duty security jobs at the store called for assistance about 2 a.m. because the protesters were causing disturbances in the back of the store.
One of those arrested, Mark Faulk, 55, of Oklahoma City told the newspaper that he was filming the group's "mike check" - in which one member of the group shouts something and then the others in the group repeat what the speaker said - when "Del City police ran and started tackling people from behind."
Police Lt. Steve Robinson told The Associated Press that no excessive force was used.
© Jeff BarnardA memorial displays a photo of David Grubbs on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, at a bike path in Ashland, Ore.,where he was killed last weekend in an apparent random attack by a stranger wielding a sword or a machete. The attack has sent a shiver of horror through the small town, where murder is usually carefully staged in theaters of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
The real-life slaying of a young grocery clerk nearly decapitated by an apparent stranger wielding a sword or machete has sent a shiver of horror through residents and visitors alike, and stumped investigators desperately searching for clues.
A small shrine is growing on the side of the bike path where 23-year-old David Grubbs was killed last weekend while walking home from work, the way he had countless times, just as darkness was falling. It's an open place next to a parking lot where the path goes through a park with ball fields and tennis courts - and past an elementary school - where parents bring their small children to play.
"I'm freaking out," said Zhawen Wahpepah, who came to the shrine Friday morning with her boyfriend, August Haddick, to burn sage and leave a booklet of music that she and Grubbs had played together as members of a school chamber orchestra. She added it to the candles, flowers, carrot cake, NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle, music CDs, photos, and lyrics from the song, "Stairway to Heaven." They were all carefully placed on the ground next to a green metal cross painted with the name David and driven into the ground.
Despite a lagging economy and high unemployment rates, retailers are reporting this year is one of the best for sales, with 152 million shoppers expected to hit stores this Black Friday.
Early reports suggest that bigger crowds were found at the nation's malls and stores as retailers like Macy's and Target opened their doors at Midnight.
It what seems to be a burgeoning Black Friday tradition, reports of violence erupted throughout the country.
Authorities in Los Angeles say that 20 people suffered minor injuries at a local Walmart when a woman used pepper spray on them to get to the front of the line when the store opened Thursday evening.
Police in Fayetteville, N.C. are hunting for two suspects after gunfire went off early Friday in the Cross Creek Mall.
© Allison Joyce/Getty ImagesOccupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes with police over the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park.
But just when Americans thought we had the picture - was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? - the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being - falsely - informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."
