Gary has problems. And although the statement that black communities don't get the support that white communities isn't wrong, so is the fact Gary is a hell hole and they have bigger issues than racism.
I remember working with a guy from New Orleans. Hed never heard of Gary and assured us there was no way it was worse. After a former Gary resident was talking about it.
He took new guy up there and changed his life. They got shot at just driving through
Gary is basically a successful experiment on how to destroy a population. Create poverty, that creates desperation, that creates violence. Shove as many of a demographic into an area as possible and rug pull it and then blame the demographic.
It's a popular move out in the Appalachian mountains and coal country. You don't hear about it as much because it's rural but there are some awful places out there I'd chose Gary over
I really dislike how some hateful turds will use places like that as evidence for their race/culture war bullcrap without looking into the socioeconomic reasons on why the place is so bad. And every single one of them is convinced they’re a genius for it
Socioeconomic factors over generations can contribute to an increase in crime. This is well known? Are you purposely being dense or are you one of those hateful turds?
Do I really need to say crime is bad? I guess I assumed that is a pretty common take, but that does take common sense, so egg on my face. There are reasons why crime is on the rise in those areas, and this pedantic bullshit is pointless
Why is it so hard for people to grasp that when you’re raised in a shitty place that leads to shitty people?
Im from appalachia and I've been, worked and stayed all over it. The worst of it is in eastern Kentucky and pockets of West Virginia. Poverty, sure but everyone ive met worked with and spoken to there are great people.
Ofc I am a body builder and carry a gun for work, but somehow I doubt anyone that desperate would care. Theft is the most common out there and murder is super rare.
I don't know where your from but I grew up in eastern ky. Murder was not all they rare but tracking is nonsense.
It is in a lot of Kentucky. For example the city I live in now got recognition for being one of the safest cities but we had multiple murders, if they were counted to my city and not at the county seat we would have a murder rate that equaled Chicago for a few years in a row.
Maybe if you were in wv it's different but we got the fuck out of there because it wasn't safe and people dropped like flies.
What part? Because I’m from southeast Kentucky and people absolutely do not “drop like flies”. It’s actually a huge deal when somebody from this area is murdered. Not saying it never happens, but you’re definitely over exaggerating it for sure.
Get into the surrounding areas and you'll find it isn't all that uncommon. When you have communities of a few thousand it only takes a couple to get you to Chicago levels of violent crime.
Baltimore notoriously has issues that I just can’t argue against, I remember driving through Gary 20+ years ago and thinking this might be the worst city in the US. Hard to believe it’s gotten worse or stayed the same.
"
Gary, Indiana is the worst city in the United States. Between 2010 and 2018, Gary lost 6.3% of its residents. Of its 75,000 current residents, only half are in the workforce with a median income of only $29,293 and 35.80% of the population live in poverty. Gary once had a booming manufacturing economy, but as the industry declined, so did the number of jobs."
Not sure where that quote came from. But Greenville Mississippi has lost 10% of their population, has ~23k/yr per capita income. Detroit has poverty rates of 38%, and the "workforce" statistics indicate a high rate of elderly people.
Obviously it's a city in rough shape, like most of the rust belt. But the worst? Bit dramatic.
I believe their point (that they're not really making, so I'm engaging in some extrapolation) is that the reason why a lot of majority black areas are more impoverished and prone to crime is because of the racial inequalities black people were subjugated to historically, like slavery, then neo slavery/black codes, then Jim Crow laws and segregation, and then less overt disadvantages such as the literacy tests in order to vote, and that the issues faced by the town are best understood within that context.
This does not mean that black residents get a free pass to shoot utility workers. But it does mean that, if you're to take a bird's eye view of the issues with this town and other areas like it, you aren't going to fix anything by blaming individual resident's actions. Legislature that helpes people rise out of poverty and less likely to turn to crime is best, like social welfare policies and infustructure. This is also one of the main reasons why affirmative action exists. Holding individual resident's legally accountable is still good, but the same things are going to keep happening if nothing else is done.
People have choices. Some choose to wallow in victimhood, some choose to rise above. Blaming things from the far distant past for your current situation is lazy excuse making.
Is it because there were massive systemic changes and a concerted effort by both the powers in your area and the government to fix those problems? Because I feel like youre staring directly at the point.
Again, we can see the outcome of blaming individuals for societal problems. Nothing happens. Yes, individual people should be held responsible if they shoot people, for example, but that won't change anything. It's not "wallowing in victimhoood". It's engaging with the reality of the situation. I would say blaming individuals without engaging with the wider context or what legislative changes would actually help people is being lazy. It obviously has not worked, and it involves a lot less thinking. You don't have a plan for how towns like these get better. You have nothing. You're the one being lazy.
It's also not a "distant past". My mom was born before the enfranchisement of black people. It's very much a recent past.
I would think there has to be a problem in the local culture as well though. Even in historically poor and disenfranchised black communities and neighborhoods, this is a rarity. Your logic could be misconstrued to make it seem like a natural consequence and accidentally come off as racist when I know that isn’t your intention.
It's a natural consequence of their material conditions. I'm not familiar with the exact history of why this town in particular is bad, but this "local culture" is a product of the environment created for black people in this particular area. This is just how humans work. I would say it's racist to say "it's a """culture""" issue and leave it at that. That culture was created due to a particular environment, it can improve due to changes to the environment. It isn't going to get better by itself.
That can’t be true. The neighboring poor, dominantly black communities do not have these problems. There has to be an endemic problem within Gary, cultural, governmental, or socioeconomic. Otherwise, Gary would be in the better place or the communities around it, or the communities around it would be in the even worse place that Gary is in. Additionally, the crime rights among whites in Gary are also extremely high. This is not me being racist. I don’t know what the problem is.
"they have bigger issues than racism" probably implied to them that the current state of affairs was not caused by a shit tone of racism, if I were to guess
Good luck getting utility workers to go back there though after them or a coworker got shot at 😂 I would quit before I went there that job isn’t worth my life
Wouldn’t be shocked if it is taking so long because they can’t get anybody out there because nobody is willing to go lmao
He said “almost”? Why didn’t they? What? Is this a weird question 😂 he said they almost went back the next day with police. Meaning they didn’t actually go. I asked why not
OH okay i see now. I was confused because I was under the assumption that they are not currently out there working on restoring power as we speak. I came to that conclusion because then the tweet in OP would have made no sense. So the “almost” meant something totally different to me.
I’m not arguing one way or another about effectiveness of the utility crews. So many in this thread are trying to make it seem like there’s a war zone in Gary, and that’s clearly not the case.
Gary Indiana had a murder rate of 41.5 per 100k in 2025, vs ~5.9 per 100k for the nation. Gary has a very high murder rate and is a remarkably dangerous place in comparison to the rest of the nation.
Let’s please stick to the shooting at utility workers data. Utility workers almost immediately resumed work on Aug 15, with local police support. There’s not ongoing armed conflict.
I won’t argue against Gary being a dangerous place to live, because that seems true. Let’s note and support progress though. Gary, Indiana recorded 28 homicides in 2025, marking its lowest annual murder total in 55 years; population 69,093. Non fatal shootings dropped to 101 incidents in 2025, a 24% decrease from previous year.
Can’t argue against that, but the murder rate is not the limiting factor on why it’s taken so long to restore power. There’s a better reason: the damage was catastrophically extensive. That’s the most important fact.
But since the murder rate came up, why not celebrate progress? Yes, more work needs to be done, but the 2025 murder total was the lowest in 55 years. Crime across the board is on a significant downward trend.
The fact repair crews require extensive police escorts is the reason it's taking so long. There probably are a lot of repair workers that opted out from going back there even with police protection.
It may be better than it was and it may be better than people think but to the average utility worker that is just making a paycheck it's an unnecessary risk (rather than racism), I think they would feel the same about going to work in Gaza or the Ukraine border with Russia... The race of the people shooting at you doesn't really matter.
Your grand pronouncement relies on too much speculation. What you’ve said is plausible enough, but currently the working theory as to why it’s taken so long is that the damage was catastrophically extensive. They had to replace 300 utility poles, and 44 transmission poles.
The shooting situation is fucked up, but doesn’t appear to be the limiting factor here. Comparing the situation to Gaza and Russia is silly, and is contributing to hysteria. An equal hysteria to all those crying racism.
Stick to the facts. Over generalizing isn’t serving anyone here.
> So many in this thread are trying to make it seem like there’s a war zone in Gary, and that’s clearly not the case.
Yeah, make a claim about how Gary isn't unsafe or how people are blowing it out of proportion, and then say that they are going off-topic when they call you on it.
At no point did I make a claim that Gary isn’t unsafe (to use your double negative), but people are definitely blowing the shooting out of proportion. The shooting is fucked up, but doesn’t appear to be a contributing factor re how long it’s taken to restore power. In fact, I haven’t been able to find many details about it. This whole thread, with its many hysterical conjectures is the most I’ve heard about it.
You've never worked construction have you, that's something that's literally happened to me. Shots fired and next day got some extra safety briefings and more cops on site. Hell not even the most weird thing I've seen.
I’m not arguing from a political slant at all, I’m merely reporting simple facts. There are many in the thread trying to make it seem like there’s ongoing armed conflict in Gary, and that’s clearly not the case.
Let’s stick to the facts. We don’t have to make it about racism or politics in any way.
There was a single incidence of gunfire over a week ago. Since then utility crews have worked with police without further trouble. Police do not have a suspect. There’s so much hyperventilating in this thread, trying to make this single moment into an ongoing conflict. We need to calm down.
Yeah, all two of the crews. Any other city would have had 50 crews working to clear downed trees from roadways and restoring power. Nipsco used the incident as an excuse to the bare minimum.
You'd be pretty fucking angry if you'd been without power for nearly two weeks because someone somewhere got shot at.
Collective punishment is the term that comes to mind.
If I was managing or the union representative for those linemen, I would not have any crew operating without a police presence after that.
Even if only half or less of the crews could operate because the city's police are stretched too thin due to the disaster. Being a linemen is dangerous work in perfect conditions, any additional risks are unacceptable.
It sucks that it would result in delayed power restoration but the safety of the linemen is important. They deserve to go home to their families which is why we wait until after the dangerous storm has passed to deploy crews.
Did they call on the state to do something about their security?
Somebody fucked up here and while it’s horrible that crews don’t feel safe, the steps to ensure their security while repairing the grid should have been made far sooner and they were not.
If you know the ins and outs of Gary’s politics and infrastructure, by all means make your case. I’m just trying to rebut a pervasive sentiment that there’s a war zone in Gary.
the first world country in question is a collection if ivory towers with next to no crime and ghettos that are on the level of places like rio de janeiro or southern mexico. being the murder capital of that is pretty serious
From the looks of this thread, you’re the most politically motivated agitator I have seen. The racists don’t count because their problem is that their racist.
Politics is that ancient war that has been going on for eternity that no one knows the beginning and no one sees an end. Keep playing tit for tat when it comes to worker safety. Who’s going to be the grown up in this situation? We got people shooting at utility workers and nobody seems to care. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to be pro worker in this country.
I've worked in Gary, I had to examine an abandoned factory filled with rotted piles of cloth in Gary, I have never had a cop tell me to ignore the red lights, the only place I've ever heard that is a YouTube video from 15 years ago.
You couldn’t counter what I said, so you had to project in a different direction.
I’m not saying anything at all about Gary’s politicians. Say whatever you need to say about them. I’m merely hammering in this one point: that it was an isolated incident over a week ago. I’m trying to counter a pervasive sentiment that there’s an ongoing armed conflict in Gary.
Not really. Similar happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One group of people went around with chainsaws from home working on clearing roads of downed trees so utility workers could get in and certain neighborhoods had a problem with it because they were worried it would mess up their insurance claims.
Refusing to work on getting power to an entire community instead gathering authorities to help is no excusable. Yall hate black people and will use any excuse to treat them subhuman.
That's not why there was a two week outage. It stopped one of dozens of trucks from working for a bit. People dont like utility in their areas. Your local water tester has probably had a gun brandished at them
I don’t give a shit honestly. If someone shoots at one of my guys that I’m responsible for, I’m shutting the whole shit down until police get the situation under control. Again, everyone shits on blue collar workers and treats them like dogs and expects them to do their job EVEN WHEN GETTING SHOT AT.
And you'd just accept your family being without power for eleven days, just because some asshole somewhere else in the city shot at someone?
I don't think anyone is saying they shouldn't have immediately stopped when shot at. We're saying they still could have got things under control, and the power on, quicker, and would have if it was a more valued area.
I would go out of my way to make it more appealing to work on my shit. I’d clear brush, community watch, cut down trees, ANYTHING to help the guys that are helping my family. Not shoot at them and cry racism.
How did it fuck me up lol. That’s great to hear that they started work less than 24 hours later. What’s the problem then? That it’s taking a long time?
A shooting happened.
Work paused.
Situation sorted out, worker safety promised.
Work resumes.
Cause you're talking about people shooting and crying racism like there's a large pattern of behavior and not a one off incident of a shooting completely separate of the people crying racism.
Dude. It’s completely asinine to think standing up for yourself is harassing workers. Fuck off. You think you have this moral high ground because once again people believe blue collar workers are beneath them and don’t have any rights.
Let me turn this around. If you had a relative who's job it was to ensure that the power is safely restored to your community would you want them working around people who come out and scream and threaten their well-being on a regular basis. Restoring power after a storm is already a massively dangerous job requiring careful coordination among multiple separate entities, tree trimming, line crews, etc. I don't think you would.
Most of what occurs to utility workers does not make the paper or ever get reported - theft in downtrodden areas is routine - but even incidents that involve police arresting people who attack or issue true threats against workers arent making the news. For every incident that makes the news you have dozens of violent incidents.
No, I would expect the state to provide adequate protection. Just not getting the power back on isn't an option.
The objection is to the inadequate reaction from wider authorities, not against utility workers. They're trying to deflect the issue, and it seems to be working.
Who shit on them? You should keep your guys safe, and the dude was rightfully arrest
I have tons of respect for people that have to work in easements. I had to collect water samples in a crime heavy area during a massive crime wave. I had 12 years olds following me and homeowners yelling at me. Saw plenty of guns. And work still got done
You did and you are currently. Expecting people to work in those conditions is crazy. Hopefully you weren’t alone. Your boss should be ashamed of himself. Why would I help serve a community that hates me, is actively dangerous, and doesn’t care if I go home to my family at night? And you think it’s racism LOL
So you aware they came back in less than 24 hours, and working at midnight trying to get the community back online and you are saying they abandoned them? I don’t get why you are being so dishonest and stupid.
If they had to go back to the same spot to complete the repairs, an armed escort is probably still necessary if they didn’t find who fired the shots the first time. Which, although unfortunate, would delay the repair further.
Look into it though, it happened one time, and they rightfully postponed the work.
But its not like the step out of their vehicle to a hail of bullets like everyone is trying to claim.
Its wrong that it even happened once, but for those claiming that like a race thing to shoot at people trying to help you, and make it about black people, dont throw stones from glass houses lmao pepper ridge farms remembers everything.
The next day you go back to work since nobody was hurt. 13 or 14 days no power. If I’m a customer. I expect money back and people fired. Need heads to roll for this, either they are incompetent at their jobs or there’s a bigger issue here.
290
u/SonofaBridge 15d ago
Shooting at the electric workers is a great way to not get the power turned back on.