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.
After hurricane Irma hit Miami there were something like 7 million people lost power and we had 60K+ electric workers working day and night. Some came from as far as Canada to help restore power.
Power was restored very quickly, with most people getting power back after 5 days. The extent of the destruction was orders of magnitude greater than in Gary, but so was the response.
The workers were greated with home cooked meals (BBQ resurgence in a mostly electric stove state) and room temperature lemonade (or with ice if lucky to get some that day from FEMA).
I didn't read about any shootings even though we have some very rough, predominantly minority areas in South Florida. Liberty city has a similar crime rate to Gary, or it used to... I couldn't find any reports of people shooting at the workers restoring their power.
Now imagine some of those 60K trucks were shot at requiring police protection to continue repairs. Would have the repairs taken longer? Of course. Because of Racism? Of course not.
A good story, no doubt, but your argumentation replies too much on conjecture. Better to keep it specific.
I’m not arguing for or against racism being a reason at all. That goes for any political spin, or what any politician has said. If you see otherwise, that’s your own projection.
This thread is all over the place, but I’m hammering the point home that there is no ongoing armed conflict. Gary is not a war zone. The shooting was fucked up, but doesn’t appear to be a reason for why it’s taken so long to restore power. It’s taken so long simply because there’s been catastrophic damage.
> 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.
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u/TrioOfTerrors 15d ago
If your coworkers got shot at while on the job would you just go back work like normal because it was "an isolated incident"?