Barry Leiba over at the always excellent Staring at Empty Pages put it far better than I did:

The authorities should look, instead, to the ones who are really responsible for the crush in the first place: the store owners, and the retail industry in general. I’d like to see the store owners held responsible and charged with manslaughter for this. I’d like to see the retail industry and the advertisers charged with incitement to riot. Because that’s what this was: a riot. And that’s what’s being done with these advertisements for “Door busters!” and other Black Friday hype: they’re meant to whip crowds into hysteria and mayhem in the name of shopping. They are absolutely stirring riots. And those responsible should be held accountable for it.

Read the whole post here.