This would never happen in any other country.
Now I'm not gonna go all anti-USA on your asses, because I'm not ignorant enough to think that all of America is bad, blah blah blah, I know a lot of nice Americans, and it's clear that there are millions more there. But this could only happen in a place where there is so much commercialism, and a sub-concious NEED to buy for greed. So much so that they don't care if someone dies so they can get a few dollars off one of their precious material posessions.
In the small town where I live in the UK (And I MEAN small town, population of no more than 500) I was on my way to work, at the local supermarket that is renouned for selling everything for dirt cheap (Home Bargains for anyone in the UK). There was the largest queue waiting for the shop to open than I had ever seen in my half a year of working there. About 50 people. As I went to walk around the store to the employees entrance, I saw a woman slip on some ice that had been a puddle the night before, just outside the door. About a second after that, the front doors opened, and only about 20 of the people walked into the shop, mainly the ones at the front that didn't see what happened. The rest stopped to make sure she was alright.
This sort of courtesy and civility should happen wherever you are. What this story reminded me of is a load of ants. You see it in documentaries and everything, where a huge colony of ants will be moving somewhere, in an uncaring fashion, waking over each other, not caring, because (And I'm no ant expert) they probably don't have the ability to feel empathy.
Just because the rest of the crowd is doing it, doesn't make it okay, and the worst part is, nobody can be prosecuted. I hope everyone who knows they trampled that poor person is guilt ridden enough so that this material christmas of theirs that cost a human life is ruined for them. But it won't happen.
Because they saved their few extra dollars...
*Edit* I do hope I didn't offend any Americans, but my point was, when I went to the US, the crowds on the streets and in shops were the most uncaring I've ever met, I got walked into several times by people who didn't even look at me afterwards. Just barged straight past. And it was a shock for me, because I've been to most of the major European countries, and 95% of the people, if they accidentally bump into you, or you know, trample you to death, will apologise.
But that doesn't take away the fact that I've met and spoken to a huge number of polite, kind US citizens.