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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."
Stockton - Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.
Michael Davis is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. His mother says it has led to fights at school. But when the school district said it had a plan to change Michael's behavior, his mother says things went wrong.
"Michael is energetic," Thelma Gray said. "He is one big ball of energy."
Gray calls Michael a comedian. She says his biggest problem is his ADHD stops him from thinking before he acts or speaks.
"He's very loving," Gray said. "He's a good kid and he's not the discipline problem that he was made out to be."
A protective grandfather received a complimentary pile of bloody paper towels as part of his Black Friday shopping experience, after police slammed him to the floor at a Walmart in Buckeye, Ariz. What did the grandfather do to receive this amazing offer?
According to Fox News Phoenix, the man was shopping with his wife and grandson, just lookin' at the video games, when suddenly a mob of crazy-ass shoppers showed up to attack some of the games, rip their packaging apart, and punch each other (in the name of Baby Jesus, no doubt!).
According to Fox News Phoenix, the man was shopping with his wife and grandson, just lookin' at the video games, when suddenly a mob of crazy-ass shoppers showed up to attack some of the games, rip their packaging apart, and punch each other (in the name of Baby Jesus, no doubt!).
Passengers may face a longer wait at Heathrow Airport
Military personnel are being asked to prepare to man Britain's borders when public sector workers stage a mass walkout next Wednesday, Sky sources have said.
It comes as Heathrow Airport bosses warned the strike on November 30 could cause "gridlock" as passengers are forced to remain on planes as queues build inside terminals.
Civil servants have also been approached to help out, with up to 18,000 immigration officials are expected to take part in the walkout.
Passengers travelling through Heathrow next week have been told they may have to queue for up to 12 hours during the strike.
And chiefs at airport operator BAA are even suggesting to airlines that they fly their planes half full.
The warning came in a letter to all airlines which fly to Heathrow from chief operating officer Normand Boivin.
He said BAA had "reluctantly concluded" that the UK Border Agency would be unable to provide a contingency plan to support normal operations.
Mr Boivin warned: "Modelling of the impacts of strike action on passenger flows at Heathrow show that there are likely to be very long delays of up to 12 hours to arriving passengers.
© Main Street.com
The violence began even before Thanksgiving was technically over. Moments after a Walmart in Los Angeles opened its doors at 10 p.m., one woman reportedly used pepper spray on at least 20 customers - some of whom were children - to keep them away from the discounted electronics she planned to buy.
Ten customers at the store endured minor injuries from breathing in the pepper spray, according to the Associated Press, and the woman in question has yet to be found. The rest of the crowd continued to shop.
As if the pepper spray incident weren't bad enough, shoppers elsewhere in California had to contend with something even more frightening: an actual shooting.
A man was found shot and bleeding in the parking lot of a Walmart in the Bay Area just before 2 a.m. The man and his family had apparently been the victim of an attempted mugging, as "several" people with guns tried to take the family's purchases by force.
© Minyanville
Walmart and Black Friday -- these two things just don't go together safely, do they? Two years ago, an employee at the retailer's upstate New York location was trampled to death by aggressive shoppers looking to be the first to grab Black Friday deals.
This year, at a Walmart in southern California, one overzealous shopper found a way to prevent others from getting on their hands on the merchandise she wanted. By pepper-spraying them.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the woman, who is still at large, was "competitive shopping" and pepper sprayed bargain hunters once the doors of the Walmart opened at 10pm yesterday. Matthew Lopez, 18, was one of the unlucky shoppers who was hit with the pepper spray.
"I heard screaming and I heard yelling," said Lopez, 18. "Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up."According to officials, 20 people suffered injuries from the attack, another of whom was 24 year-old Alejandra Seminario.
© APThousands of Russians have flocked to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for a glimpse of a religious relic.
They shuffle along, waiting for up to 12 hours without complaint in a line that stretches for miles. Within a few days, the organizers say, the wait could reach 24 hours. At any given time there are about 25,000 people, according to news media estimates, and as of Wednesday morning, 285,000 true believers had earned their moment before the belt, said the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, which organized the tour.
As befits his status as the arbiter of most things Russian, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin was the first to greet the holy relic when it arrived on Oct. 20 in St. Petersburg from a Greek Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos in Greece for a monthlong tour of Russia.
Of all the industrial nations, perhaps only Russia outdistances the United States in the religiosity of its people, two million of whom venerated the belt before its final stop in Moscow.
© Unknown
A customer shot pepper spray at other customers at a busy Northridge Wal-Mart store late Thursday night, causing minor injuries to at least 10 people who had been waiting hours for Black Friday savings, according to Los Angeles firefighters and a police lieutenant. The Associated Press later reported 20 injuries.
"It was an unhappy customer'' who spritzed pepper spray at the Wal-Mart, 19821 Rinaldi Street, at 10:10 p.m., said Lt. Abel Parga at the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire station. The suspect then left the store.
Firefighters arrived to treat at least 10 people, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Shawn Lenske. Injuries were minor, he said.
