Has everyone heard

this tale is as old as dirt. check out Snopes.com and do a search for it.

Hmm. Thanks for the heads up, although one of our local walmarts is like that most days… DH says that I can only go to that one in broad daylight.

Sounds like an urban legend/ rumor to me, but I STILL won’t go near a Walmart tonight. Better to be safe than sorry!

This was released today on About.com (I also tried to copy & paste the article from Snopes.com, but it wouldn’t let me. The jist is, this rumor has been circulating since 2005. 🙂

Broward and Palm Beach County officials issued similar statements today, labeling gang initiation rumors still circulating in south Florida “hoaxes and urban legends.”

one version of the rumor spreading via text message read as follows (verbatim):
fwd: police are asking all women not to go to any walmart tonight there is a gang iniation and three women will be shot this is not a joke pls foward
the times-journal of selma, alabama noted that gang initiation rumors erupted there as well, culminating in a panicky phone call from a subscriber tuesday night asking if it was true that hostages were being held inside the selma walmart store. no such assault occurred, the times-journal reported.

Its a rumor. It went around here at Christmas last year as well as in the city my brother lives. No truth to it at all.

@tsgal 112522 wrote:

Glad I ask, I knew that it couldn’t be true. In this part of the country these type of things just don’t happen. I’m not saying that it couldn’t, but it just doesn’t.

So for something like this to be going around in these parts is unheard of. Sounded a bet strange for here.

Don’t ever think it will not happen. In 2005 the city I lived in had a stabbing happen at the local walmart which turned out to be a gang initiation. Until then our chief of police was denying we even had gangs even though the people of the city was telling him he was nuts.

After this he couldn’t deny it. Our local newspaper ran an article this weekend on this being untrue according to police sources and the local police department working with other cities to investigate the possibility. We once thought it was a chance here but highly unlikely also.

Since the stabbing here, this is what I do personally to protect myself. I go out to places in the daytime. I do not go alone unless absolutely necessary, if I do I am very aware of my surroundings and if someone I do not know starts to approach me or even looks like they will be approaching me I get on my cell phone quickly sometimes I am not talking to anyone but I have had times when people who seemed to be approaching me thought I was on the phone quickly turned and walked away.

If they are still approaching me I loudly say hold on someone is walking toward me and describe what they look like, that way if something did happen the description is out before it does.If I go out after dark I am never alone not even to the local cigarette store just up the road.

Just be cautious and aware of your surroundings and always listen to that little voice inside you that tells you something isnt right, I know I can usually tell if someone is watching me or if something just dont feel right. That little voice is there for a reason, when we dismiss it things usually go wrong. When we dont sometimes we never know but I would rather never know than take a chance.

Actually, if you speak with any gang expert they will tell you that a killing is highly unlikely to be a gang initiation. gang initiations are usually beatings (of the person being initiated) or something of that nature. and really, it makes perfect sense.

@rtebalt 112787 wrote:

Actually, if you speak with any gang expert they will tell you that a killing is highly unlikely to be a gang initiation. gang initiations are usually beatings (of the person being initiated) or something of that nature. and really, it makes perfect sense.

gang experts say the reason murders are very rarely part of gang initiations is because its too risky to ask someone who is not yet a member of the gang to commit murder. that’s because if the person gets arrested, they are not yet a member of the gang “family” & therefore there is a much higher risk that they will “rat out” the members of the gang. scary how much thought these gang members put into the formation of their gangs!!!

thats interesting but makes sense. from what i understand that is exactly what happened in this instance. they caught the guy and he ratted out the gang he was supposedly joining.

i don’t know what happened after that because our paper if famous for starting a story and then you never hear what happens.