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[Maximum Spin]

Was it spoiled? Was the food actually spoiled? If it was then this is a story about the police stopping a bunch of fucking dumbasses from being hospitalized after eating a rotten ham out of a goddam dumpster.

I want to add that it's impossible, as a practical matter, for anyone to be sure it (at least some of it) wasn't. The article quotes some random saying it wasn't, but what the fuck does he know? All he did was look at it, if I give him the benefit of the doubt to believe he even did that. He certainly isn't any kind of food-safety expert, but just some activist whose incentive is to say it wasn't.

The article of course doesn't bother to question this or even ask if the guy ate any of it to be sure, but at least it does clearly state that the store workers thought it was spoiled and called the police because they were afraid of that very thing Dunamisdeos cites happening.

[Rolan7]

I was about to say, it's not at all relevant whether the food was spoiled or not.  This is an issue of liability.

What's supposed to happen is that the business makes a reasonable effort to discard the food and then "ohhh nooo, someone raided the dumpster, they shouldn't be doing that!".  The company and employees aren't liable for the state of the food, and that's understood, and the hungry people get to eat.

Something went wrong with that arrangement.  Maybe someone found it objectionable, I couldn't say.

Edit:  Because keep in mind that there's a MASSIVE gulf between "officially safe to serve" and "you might get a stomach ache if you're unlucky".  I'm sure most of it was fine, but the employees *couldn't* just donate it or hand it out.  They could be sued.  Hence, "throwing it away" and not locking the dumpster.  Except, not this time... smells like management to me.

[Maximum Spin]

The company and employees aren't liable for the state of the food, and that's understood, and the hungry people get to eat.[...]They could be sued.  Hence, "throwing it away" and not locking the dumpster.  Except, not this time... smells like management to me.

It seems possible that they were afraid of getting sued for not securing the dumpster well enough, too. Of course we all know that the magic of the civil justice system is that you can never quite be sure what you aren't liable for.

[Lord Shonus]

Portland PD, which claims to be horribly underfunded (none have ever claimed otherwise), was able to somehow afford 12 armed officers to defend a dumpster full of food to make sure poor people can't eat.

Police were sent because there was a genuine possibility of a violent confrontation. Once it was determined that the protestors were not interested in anything but going through the dumpster for food which was illegal for the store to dispose of in any other way due to a refrigeration failure, they left. Calling it "make sure poor people can't eat" is not simply misleading, it is a deliberate and inflammatory lie.

[Iduno]

Police were sent because there was a genuine possibility of a violent confrontation.

Where'd you find that? Even the police and the store aren't claiming that.

[Rolan7]

It was only going to be violent if the employees were willing to hurt people over some unsalable food, *and* the hungry were willing to force the issue.  Which they weren't, evidently, so yeah.

Someone did "make sure [these] poor people couldn't eat [this food]".  Someone ordered those employees out there to make sure the food rotted, letting people go hungry, instead of looking the other way.  The cops and the employees were just doing their jobs, but someone called those cops and someone threatened violence on the hungry using their wage-slaves as a personal militia.  Guarding property is done via threat of violence, even if the property has no retail value.

[Lord Shonus]

It is literally in the linked article.

On Wednesday, Portland police said officers were sent to the scene after employees said “they felt the situation was escalating and feared there may be a physical confrontation,” a police spokesman said in a statement.

The same is stated in this other news article:

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/fred-meyer-calls-police-to-guard-dumpster-portland-spoiled-food/283-8e90634f-4f79-4871-b286-cf817bb55969

PORTLAND, Ore — Fred Meyer employees called Portland police to remove people from the store property after dozens of residents tried to gather spoiled food thrown out by store workers Tuesday.

A company spokesperson told KGW that the Hollywood West Fred Meyer store lost power due to the winter storm and had to use a backup generator. Some food, however, was not refrigerated for long enough that it was deemed unsafe and had to be thrown out.

Employees called Portland police because they feared there might be a physical confrontation with the people trying to gather the spoiled food from the store dumpster. Officers arrived around 4:30 p.m. and told the crowd they needed to leave the store property. If not, they could be arrested for trespassing, police said.

Police estimated the crowd grew to about 50 people.

-snip-

Officers did not make any arrests and did not use force, according to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). Officers left the area around 6 p.m.

After police left, employees reported that the crowd moved back onto the property and threatened them. Police decided not to return to the store unless there was a threat of serious injury or lives were in danger.

[hector13]

The company and employees aren't liable for the state of the food, and that's understood, and the hungry people get to eat.[...]They could be sued.  Hence, "throwing it away" and not locking the dumpster.  Except, not this time... smells like management to me.

It seems possible that they were afraid of getting sued for not securing the dumpster well enough, too. Of course we all know that the magic of the civil justice system is that you can never quite be sure what you aren't liable for.

The phrase “any reasonable person” would probably come into play.

“Any reasonable person” would consider eating food removed from a dumpster to be an unsafe proposition.

Why the employees were defending their garbage is, quite frankly, beyond me. They can’t sell it, and the only thing that might happens is they have to put other garbage back if the crowd happen to be messy.

[martinuzz]

They defended it because it's the US. Imagine the horror if some poor hungry sod ate rotten food and got sick, then he could sue for millions.

[LordBaal]

I know first hand of a McDonals here that did handed out "spoiled" hamburgers to homeless guys back in the day.

To not anger management and or have a hobbo crowd around the place they simply put gently the "spoiled" ones on the waste bin, then when it was time to take out the trash they would separate the really bad ones to the general trash and left the edible ones on a bag by itself.

The homeless guys knew to wait and only take the waste bin bag with them.

Dont know if they still do it.

I write "spoiled" because its a policy to throw away anything (o meat line) that lasts more than 10 minutes after being made. I know this policy comes from "frivolous legal suits land" and here is kinda idiotic and wasteful but is mandatory from the franchise so what you gonna do? Management makes a point of trying to reduce waste at 0 if poasible.

[Lord Shonus]

That's not a lawsuit thing. Disposing of stuff afelter a certain amount of tine is because management cares more about reducing customer complaints than they do about the cost of wastage.

Also "frivolous lawsuit land" is a myth perpetuated by big corporations who want to neuter the primary way regular people can hold them accountable

[Egan_BW]

Yeah, stores and restaurants throw out tons of food that's still good. The main thing keeping you from eating it is the lock on the dumpster~

[Vector]

This is on a totally different topic -- I'm fucking exhausted. Zoom school sucks and the support/concern that was offered in the fall is completely gone, at least for me. Sink or swim time, baby.

[Frumple]

Grandfather is very clearly transitioning into mid/mid-late stages of probably!Alzheimer's. No official diagnosis (i.e. no meaningful help) yet, either.

Trying to care for him's going to start getting much, much harder

[Eric Blank]

You should try to find a professional caretaker, at home if you can afford it, someone he's comfortable with and will recognize and trust. And a proper medical diagnosis. Alzheimers/dementia patients benefit a lot from it.