Portland Police Guard trash cans to stop people taking rejected food

As power outages continued through Portland, Oregon, after multiple winter storms, local police went down to a grocery store to prevent people from distributing piles of recently discarded food to those in need.

Heavy storms have hit the region with ice and snow over the past week and caused hundreds of thousands of buildings and homes to be shut down.

Employees at a Fred Meyer store who lost electricity filled two large trash cans next to the building on Tuesday with packaged meats, condiments and other perishable products that could not be sold without refrigeration. Images posted on social media appear to show thousands of discarded items, including sliced ​​packaged cheeses, cold cuts, yogurts and dairy products, vegetables and large chunks of meat. People started gathering to save what they could.

Later that afternoon, however, officers from the Portland police station arrived at the scene. The department told HuffPost that it received a call from an employee of Fred Meyer around 4 p.m. local time about “a group of people arguing with employees and refusing to leave the property.” No officer was able to respond immediately, the department said, and an employee called back about 15 minutes later because “they felt the situation was escalating.”

“The food was not suitable for consumption or donation. The agents also tried to explain it to the group of people, “the department said in a statement.

Local activist Morgan Mckniff told the Oregonian that Fred Meyer’s employees had summoned police after trying to guard the container themselves. About a dozen agents eventually showed up, Mckniff said.

Fred Meyer, a chain owned by Kroger, said employees were “concerned that area residents would eat food and risk food-borne illnesses, and hired local law enforcement with great caution. “.

“We apologize for the confusion,” the company said a series of tweets. Fred Meyer did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

The Portland Police Office said store employees called back later in the evening, but that officers refused to respond to the scene due to the lack of an “imminent threat to the life or threat of serious injury “.

No arrests or appointments were made, police said.

About 100,000 businesses and homes in Portland were left without electricity Wednesday morning and joined millions of Texas people suffering from power outages due to problems with the state’s power grid after the severe winter weather.

Portland police have recently faced staffing problems and an increase in burglaries targeting local businesses.

The city’s police force was criticized across the country last summer for its strong response to protests against police brutality and racial inequality, which turned into protests against local and federal authorities.

In July, federal agents sent by former President Donald Trump were seen grabbing street activists and putting them in unmarked vehicles, fueling even more anger among residents after a protester was shot in the head by impact ammunition and had to be operated on. Protests began to subside after federal officials began leaving the city center later in the summer.