Alissa Azar<p>About a dozen cops showed up to the community free store again tonight. Before anyone had even arrived to set up, Jessie Burke, CEO and partner at The Society Hotel, was standing on the corner where folks usually set up with her husband speaking to a handful of police. Burke has a history of being hostile to the houseless community and those providing them resources. (In addition to everything in this article, she has countless posts on her instagram that are vile) <a href="https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2024/05/16/47206194/county-commissioner-candidate-saw-more-than-40k-funneled-to-her-husband-by-a-board-she-oversees" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">portlandmercury.com/news/2024/</span><span class="invisible">05/16/47206194/county-commissioner-candidate-saw-more-than-40k-funneled-to-her-husband-by-a-board-she-oversees</span></a> </p><p>People ended up setting up just around the corner from where the free store typically is on Thursdays. Eventually, the police followed and surveilled from across the street for a while and eventually left. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were thrown off by how many people there were. </p><p>I think tonight displayed a successful community defense. While the police were still busy in the initial location with some people who stayed back to argue with them and the police tried to figure out if people had given up, others were around the corner setting up. When I first approached the distro setup in the new area, I was surprised by how many people there were. Not just the usual distro folks and people seeking resources, but others there to support and help keep the distro going even in the face of realtime repression. It wasn’t an ideal location to setup by any means, but people thought quick and didn’t let that ridiculous police response stop the distro from going on. </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CommunityFreeStore" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CommunityFreeStore</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Portland" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Portland</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/pdx" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>pdx</span></a></p>