Authorities in Portland, Ore., Clashed with residents trying to rescue discarded groceries from a landfill on Tuesday after power outages in the city due to winter storms.
About a dozen police officers in Portland confronted a group of people at a local Fred Meyer, according to The Oregonian.
According to the newspaper, people started gathering around the rubbish bin at around 14:30 and within a few hours, police officers came to guard the rubbish bins.
Morgan Mckniff, an activist and outspoken critic of Portland police, told The Oregonian that employees guarded the garbage cans before police arrived. According to Mckniff, about 15 people gathered at the store to collect discarded groceries. The manager of the store eventually called the police.
“Then other people showed up and asked, ‘Why are you guarding a rubbish bin?’ “Mckniff told the newspaper.
According to a release of the Portland Police Department (PPB), authorities went to the grocery store because employees there ‘felt the situation was escalating, and feared there might be a physical confrontation.’
“The position of the employees of the store was that the food had to be spoiled and thrown away due to a lack of refrigeration,” the PPB added. ‘The food was unfit for consumption or donation. Officers also tried to explain it to the group of people. ”
According to PPB, the crowd eventually left, only to return after police left. Police have decided not to return to the scene unless an “imminent danger to life or serious injury” is threatened.
“The people who were there were not there for selfish reasons – they were there to get food to distribute to hungry people in the city,” said Juniper Simonis, an activist and researcher who will be documenting the removal. . “There are mutual aid groups that help people feed at heating centers because the city does not have enough resources to feed them.”
Winter storms covered large parts of the US, causing widespread power outages in states like Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to send generators and diesel to the state to provide power.
As The Oregonian reported, more than 300,000 customers in the Portland area lost electricity over the weekend due to the snow and ice that fell over the city. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
Kate BrownOregon begins vaccinating prisoners against COVID-19 following order from Judge Overnight Health Care: Biden unveils vaccine plan focusing on mass vaccinations | Global coronavirus deaths pass 2 million CDC: A new variant could be the dominant American strain by March. Governors say there will be no additional vaccine doses, despite Trump’s administrative promise (D) declared a state of emergency on Saturday.