Portland Police Guard dumpers to stop people from consuming canned food

As power outages continue in Portland, Australia, locals have landed at grocery stores after several winter storms to prevent people from distributing discarded food items in need.

Major hurricanes in the past week have lashed the region with snow and ice, causing hundreds of thousands of buildings and structures to close.

Employees of the Fred Meyer store, which lost power on Tuesday, destroyed two large dumpster-filled packaged meats, spices and other items next to the building that could not be sold without refrigeration. Images posted on social media show thousands of shredded items, including sliced ​​packaged cheese, packaged sausage, yogurt and dairy products, large cuts of vegetables and meat. People began to gather to save what they could.

That afternoon, however, Portland Police Bureau officials arrived at the scene. The department told HuffPost that it received a call from a Fred Meyer employee around 4 a.m. local time, “refusing to leave a group of people arguing with employees and property.” No officers were 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 unfit for consumption or donation. Officials also tried to persuade a group of people, “the department said in a statement.

Local activist Morgan McKinf told The Region that Fred Meyer called police after employees tried to save Dumpster himself. About a dozen officers showed up, McNife said.

Fred Meyer, a chain owned by Kroger, said employees were concerned that area residents would take food and food risks, and were cautiously engaged in enforcing local law. ”

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

The Portland Police Bureau said store employees called again later in the evening, but officials declined to respond at the scene due to a lack of “imminent threat to life or serious injury.”

Police made no arrests or citations.

As many as 100,000 businesses and homes in Portland remained without electricity Wednesday morning, leaving millions of Texas people suffering from rolling blackouts due to state power grid problems after severe winter weather.

Portland police have recently seen a surge in burglary targeting staff issues and local businesses.

The city’s police force has been the subject of criticism across the country for its heavy response to protests against police brutality and racial inequality, leading to protests against local and federal law enforcement.

In July, federal officials sent by former President Donald Trump were seen grabbing activists from the street and placing them in target vehicles, shooting a protester in the head with effective weapons and sparking anger among residents over the need for surgery. Protests began to subside after federal officials began leaving the downtown area after the summer.