My mother called me earlier today to tell me that she wouldn't be going to the Walmart in my hometown anytime soon because gangs were supposed to be killing a white woman there in the next few days. Apparently, some idiot sent a text message to the police department to that effect, and now the entire town is in a panic. Even the local news had a quote from the police chief on its web site saying that, while there is no evidence that the text message is credible, the department was still advising people to stay away from Walmart and that they were increasing police presence in the area just to be safe.Do you want a text message? How about this one? OMG. Seriously, people, have you never heard of Snopes.com? How about common sense? That particular email/text message has been circulating the globe since 2005. Here's the link to prove it: Wal-Martyred. It's an urban legend. It's no different than the gang initiation story involving the high beams, the dirty needles in Burger King playgrounds, or the deadly combination of Pop Rocks and Pepsi. It's not real. If you'd bother to think about it for a minute, you'd realize it.
What gets me is that both the police department and the various forms of news (Internet, print, and TV)--two groups of people whose very job involves investigating the truth--are treating an urban legend as just that, the truth. Worse, they're going public and causing panic where there should be none if they had just taken a deep breath and opened their minds before their mouths. Even if they had never heard of Snopes, all the police and reporters had to do was go online and google "Walmart gang initiation." They would have found out that the text message was nothing more than an Internet urban legend in 10 seconds flat.
Now I'm not a big Walmart fan. I only go there when I have no other choice, but it has nothing to do with gang initiations. I just can't stand all the people. Just the same, I don't like the fact that this rumor is going to cost the store and potentially its employees a lot of money until both the police and the reporters swallow their pride and admit that they were duped by a long standing urban myth. If I was the owner or manager of the local store, I'd be on the phone with my lawyer right now. Then again, I am a lawyer so that's just how I think.
I wonder what the town, its police department, and its reporters will fall for next? Will they issue a town-wide recall on bubble gum because they're scared of the spider eggs inside? Will they tell people not to wash their hands in rest area bathrooms because the dispensers are all laced with acid? Or will they just ban kids from playing "Bloody Mary" at slumber parties? After the way the town has handled the latest urban legend, I wouldn't be surprised if they did all three.
