While power cuts continued in Portland, Oregon, after several winter storms, local police went to a supermarket to prevent people from distributing piles of recently discarded food to those in need.
Major storms hit the region with ice and snow over the past week, leading to the shutdown of hundreds of thousands of buildings and houses.
Employees at a Fred Meyer store that lost power on Tuesday filled two large bins along the side of the building with meats, condiments and other perishables that could not be sold without refrigeration. Images posted on social media appear to show thousands of discarded items, including packaged sliced cheeses, packaged sausages, yogurts and dairy products, vegetables and large cuts of meat. People started to gather to save what they could.
In the late afternoon, however, the Portland Police officers arrived at the scene. The department told HuffPost that it received a call from a Fred Meyer employee around 4 pm local time about “a group of people arguing with employees and refusing to leave the property”. No police officer was able to respond immediately, the department said, and an employee called back about 15 minutes later because “they felt the situation was getting worse”.
“The food was unfit for consumption or donation. The police also tried to explain this to the group of people, ”said the secretary in a note.
Local activist Morgan Mckniff told The Oregonian that Fred Meyer’s employees summoned the police after trying to protect the dump themselves. About a dozen police officers finally showed up, said Mckniff.
Fred Meyer, a chain owned by Kroger, said employees were “concerned that area residents would consume food and be at risk for foodborne illnesses, and they involved local authorities with excessive caution.”
“We apologize for the confusion,” said the company in a series of tweets. Fred Meyer did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The Portland Police Department said store employees called again late in the evening, but that police refused to respond to the scene due to a lack of “imminent threat to life or serious injury”.
No arrests or quotes were made, the police said.
About 100,000 businesses and homes in Portland remained without power as of Wednesday morning, joining the millions of people in Texas who are suffering from blackouts due to problems with the state’s power grid after the harsh winter.
Portland police have recently struggled with personnel issues and an increase in thefts targeting local businesses.
The city’s police force was the target of criticism across the country last summer for its severe response to protests against police brutality and racial inequality, which turned into protests against the local and federal authorities themselves.
In July, federal officials sent by former President Donald Trump were seen taking activists on the streets and placing them in unmarked vehicles, further increasing anger among residents after a demonstrator was shot in the head by impact ammunition and needed surgery. Protests began to subside after federal officials began to leave the city center in late summer.
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