Has Black Friday violence been blown out of proportion?

[Dallas Wildman]

Black Friday has been around since the early 20th century.  But it seems that since the dawn of YouTube (or modern News media, take your pick) the American public goes into pandemic mode during black Friday with the media featuring snippets of the violence.  The violence is undeniable, but what makes me skeptical is how any discussion or talking point on the matter lacks any comparison to the rest of the year.

This website (http://blackfridaydeathcount.com/) has been collecting information based on reported incidents.  But compared to national statistics available at the department of justice they're almost minuscule.  Perhaps a more convincing case could be made if there was daily crime data available.  Thoughts?

[dallen68]

What you could do, as an informal experiment, is go to your local library and see if the local paper has a police blotter. If it does, read the blotters from say a 3 month period, that included Black Friday. What you'll be looking for is, number of incidences and types of incidences. If black friday has more incidences than an average day, you'll know that crime increases on Black Friday. If it has the MOST incidences, you'll know that it increases significantly.

If it has the same number, but more of a specific type of incidence - you'll know that a certain type of crime increases.
If it has the same number, and the same proportions - you'll know that it's just a day.

Of course, you'll only know this for your city, or whatever, but it should give an idea.

Unfortunately, blotters usually only are in the hard copy of the paper, so you may not be able to do this online. Also, your paper may not have one.