Does this seem smart?
 

Background. Portland is just a little bit of a power keg recently, we have all seen the news feeds. And, there is a year long pandemic that has many without work. And, we just had the worst power outage in Oregon history.

So when a local grocery story tosses a few tons of food after their power goes out, the locals do what they do: dumpster dive.

And the store calls the cops.

And the cops show up in force.

This just seems like error on top of error to me. What could have been a PR win, turns into a PR debacle.

https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/fred-meyer-calls-police-to-guard-dumpsters-full-of-discarded-food/

If anybody had become sick on spoiled food, the lawsuits would have been arriving.
I see it as the store in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" scene.

Not sure how the laws work, but perhaps to make an insurance claim the store would have to show a loss of inventory. Allowing "dumpster diving" might negate the claim.

Back in the 1970's my brother worked for Cal Fire out in the Phelan/ 29 Palms area. They would have railroad boxcars catch fire every now and then. One time it was a car filled with Levi's jeans, another time with large Chamois hides.

They were able to swipe a few Chamois' to dry and spit shine the fire trucks, the rest got buried in the desert along with the Levis.

His Captain told him there was a lot of expensive stuff buried out there due to filing legitimate insurance claims.

I can see the lawsuits now...
"I ate spoiled food from your improperly locked and unguarded dumpster. I am sick now. Fred Meyer must pay me for pain and suffering and lost wages."

PPD will ignore dumpsters (or pretty much anything else) that are aflame. Fortunately, for Freddies, this one was not, so they showed up in force.

_

"Lost wages" ? Does that mean they can't phone scam people, or file fraudulent unemployment claims any longer ?

I used to shop at a little "mom and pop" grocery store. It was small, but had great butcher shop and fresh fruit. I got to know the butcher since I was a regular. On many occasions I was on the last few days waiting for the next paycheck from my job so I skipped the meat department. The butcher would call me over and point out a beautiful porterhouse and tell me that in the morning when he comes in, he will have to trash that porterhouse. He would sell it to me for 1/4 price and told me to eat it tonight. It was sure better than macaroni and cheese again.

Little doubt this country throws out a lot of perfectly good food.

Should have donated it and written it off on taxes, or would that make them liable as mentioned?
Or maybe their insurance claim would be affected as mentioned?
If the dumpsters were located on private property that is trespassing. Their own land, own possessions, own choice.

One of the points that's being missed here is that right now the police are turning a blind eye towards a lot of crime. Burglaries, muggings, car prowls, homeless taking over streets and sidewalks - nobody is taking responsiblity for law and order and it sometimes really feels like the wild west.
There was a situation last fall where a house was being repossessed that just essentially became a scene from Escape from New York and the cops washed their hands of any responsibility. The neighborhood there became a no-mans land for weeks and neighbors were PISSED!!!
And I don't know what you would have to do to get a traffic ticket right now. I think you could drag race down Broadway in five o'clock traffic, do smokey doughnuts when you got to the intersection and turn around and go back the way you came and not gotten pulled over.

But, boy-oh-boy, when the discarded food is being stolen less than a day after it hit the dumpster, well, it's the Crime of the Century. Officer Obee and the 27-8x10-colored-glossy-photographs-with-the-circles-and-arrows.
This was a show of force we haven't seen since the protests last summer, and it was completely out of proportion to the situation.
For the most part, the people that were trying to get the food were samaritans from ad-hoc foodbanks who pass out food to the homeless and hungry every day. This food was less than a day old and the weather here has been unseasonably cold, so very little chance of spoiling.

Society is out of whack right now. I fear for what the future brings.

^^^Yes.

Portland needs a "Control / Alt / Delete."

It's plain to see that Oregon as a whole, and the Portland area in general, needs new and effective leadership. The main job of a government is to keep order and protect it's citizens.

Pretty obvious that's not being done right now, isn't it?

Hoping this doesn't send the thread to PARF, but there it is...

I guess Portland doesn't have a Tiger King to take all that expired meat?

The Police in the Portland area have their hands tied behind their backs by the local Government. Don't do this, don't do that, don't protect Federal property, etc.

Whenever my employer hosted a large meeting there was always alot of food left over so we'd keep it warm and take it to the local shelter straight away. Then the city passed a law stating it was an unsafe practice and was no longer permitted. So we stopped and the shelter was more than a little pizzed. No good deed and all that.

Doesn't help that the Police Union has decided to play hardball with City Hall.

Aaaaand, the citizens caught up in the middle.

Yay us. :rolleyes:

It's about time somebody did. Just my opinion.

Portland needs a complete format of the Hard Drive followed by new operating software and management.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1613614603.jpg

^^^^?
Virginia plates on the car? I didn't know Portland was outsourcing the PD!

^^^agreed. I don't think that is a picture of Portland.

We are more hipsters and good beer folk.

Good Oregonian article about this (following the initial sensationalist article).

Power went out in the early morning, it sounds like. Fred Meyer, the grocery chain, has prior arrangements to donate perishables to food banks in case of power outage. But the food banks couldn’t come get the food due to ice, their own power outages, etc. In just 2 or 4 hours, the food was unsafe under food safety rules, that grocers and food banks have to follow. At that point it has to be discarded.

Many grocery stores in Portland had to discard food this week. At this Fred Meyer, that afternoon, people started trying to get the discarded food from the dumpster as employees were putting it in. The employees tried to stop the dumpster divers, things got threatening, and the employees called police.

Eventually the police left and the food got taken from the dumpster. Apparently a bunch of it got stocked in the Free Fridges around town, and people presumably ate the rest. It looked like cold case stuff mostly - ground meat, sausage, poultry, etc. I’m guessing the employees were putting the high value stuff into the freezer with ice as soon as the power failed.

So why was the store trying to stop people from dumpster diving? Because there’s legal (and personal) risk if people eat the store’s spoiled meat or get hurt in its dumpster. The legal protection for food donation does not apply to unsafe food or to “donations” to individuals. Putting unsafe food in a store dumpster and not doing anything to stop people from immediately taking it out is pretty close to giving away unsafe food. The store has to at least make an attempt to stop the taking.

Why did the cops respond to this when they don’t respond to other stuff? There’s been enough vandalism in Hollywood that I think the police will try to respond when a business says it’s being targeted. They were there to keep the peace, not guard a dumpster of discarded food.

Hope no-one gets sick from ground beef or chicken they get from this “mutual aid” that was sitting in the warm case for who knows how many hours before being thrown in a dumpster, pulled out, and carted to the Free Fridge. I’d guess most of it didn’t actually go to homeless people (what are they going to do with raw meat) or to food banks or shelters (they won’t take it).

On social media, people are now posting pictures of other grocery stores dumpsters with discarded food saying “come and get it”. Wonder if there’ll be any food poisoning cases from this?