Update May 13th: This story is making the rounds with blogs like this one, and here is another.
We told you just two weeks ago about the death of a Sudanese refugee who pulled a gun on Portland police and was subsequently shot to death. Now, thanks to reader ‘whuptdue’ comes more news about conflicts between refugees and police in Maine.
PORTLAND — Several juveniles and adults face charges following a melee at Franklin Arterial and Fox Street that began when police stopped and arrested a shoplifting suspect and an unruly crowd gathered.
Police responded to a report that a man had stolen two bottles of vodka at 7 p.m. Friday at the Hannaford on Forest Avenue.
Workers at the store provided a description of the suspect and the car he left in, and police pulled the car over at Franklin Arterial and Fox Street a couple of minutes later, police said.
As police were arresting Jimmy Odong, 19, of Portland and recovering the stolen merchandise, a group of about 15 to 30 people gathered, with about 10 of them becoming aggressive toward police, officers said.
A number of other officers were dispatched to the area, which is alongside the Kennedy Park housing development. Members of the gathering group, some of whom are Sudanese, like Odong, and some who are from other African countries, began calling the officers names, including “killers” and “murderers,” in apparent reference to the police shooting of a Sudanese immigrant, David Okot, last month.
When police prepared to tow the car Odong had driven, some of the crowd jumped on the car to try to prevent it from being taken, police said.
Three juveniles eventually were arrested, two of them on charges of assault after they allegedly punched the officers, police said.
In March we reported that Iraqi secondary migrants (refugees resettled elsewhere who are now moving) are also headed to Portland, Maine. The word is out about the good social welfare and the joys of living in multicultural Maine , hmmm!
Endnote: Just a reminder of the Sudanese refugee rampage in Utah last week, here. Did anyone ever see this story in the national mainstream media?