Posted on 08/24/2026 12:45:03 PM PDT by Red Badger
If you are over the age of fifty, you might hear the words "Gary, Indiana" and instantly think of The Music Man.
Gary, Indiana, shall we say, has changed.
The Chicagoland suburb has been struck by an electricity blackout that lasted over 12 days.
Things have gotten so bad that the dire situation even made the CBS Evening News.
The usual suspects took to social media to blame a familiar scapegoat for the blackout: racism.
In a now-deleted post, an X user going by the handle @BlvckJxsus wrote (uncensored here): "gary indiana has been w/o power for 11 days. gary indiana is 75% Black. yet another example of environmental racism, it is so f***ing disgusting."
Now, it is quite fitting that the man complaining about the frustrating situation refers to "environmental racism." Much like environmentalism, racism has become a shibboleth: It explains everything, and therefore, nothing at all.
So, when the man got the real cause of the power-restoration delay, his narrative was in shambles.
The community note is glorious.
The power outage was caused by severe storms on August 11, 2026, affecting Northwest Indiana and Northeast Illinois. Restoration in Gary was further delayed after utility crews were shot at on August 14, temporarily pausing work.
Oh.
An NBC 5 report gave further context on what happened.
A NIPSCO vehicle was struck by gunfire on Friday night while utility crews worked to restore power in Gary, Indiana, prompting restoration efforts in the city to be temporarily paused, officials said.
Authorities didn't immediately share information on where the gunshots were fired. In a statement following the incident, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton the Gary Police Department and the Indiana State Police were working with NIPSCO to provide protection for crews as restoration efforts continue.
"Let me be clear: this type of violence is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the City of Gary," the mayor said. "These crews are here for one reason-to help our residents and restore electricity to families who have already endured days without power."
The political establishment in Gary, Indiana, certainly raises questions.
Conservative podcaster (and RedState alum) Kira Davis gave a fantastic bit of insight into what has gone wrong in the city.
Here is what Davis wrote:
Gary is our former home town. Let me tell you why they are still without power: -People keep shooting at the NIPSCO (their power company) trucks -roving gangs of thieves and home invaders and limited police presence -infrastructure is poorly maintained; untrimmed trees are making access to power lines difficult; damaged streets and sidewalks; abandoned buildings everywhere -city leadership has been hopelessly lazy and corrupt for decades; many like the new mayor but he has clearly not prepared the city for emergency [.]
Our senior citizen uncle is there and refuses to leave his home because he knows if he leaves there will be nothing to come back to. Everyone there is at the mercy of the criminals, the weather and a chronically incompetent local government. It may also interest you to know that Gary is considered the bluest city in America with nearly total Democrat support [.]
I’m not one to defend the power companies. NIPSCO has their own issues. But the reason Gary is still offline is because most of the people there keep voting for more of the same at every turn. The city has everything it needs to be a great city. It’s on Lake Michigan, has incredible architecture and is just 30 miles from Chicago. It lost a lot of revenue when the steel mills closed but there has never been a good reason for its failure decade after decade. It’s poor leadership and a disengaged population. It’s not racism. It’s apathy and thievery [.]
Gary is no longer the "one place that can light my face"; it's the "one place that will get you shot in the face."
"Environmental racism" is not causing utility workers to be shot at. Gary, Indiana residents need to hold the Democrats who run the city accountable.
That is the only way they are going to see their poverty reduced, their crime rates drop, and their power turned back on without delays caused by gang violence.
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“I-80 overlays I-90 through there as well.”
Oh, what fun THAT is, typically.
So sad! Must break the old timers’ hearts.
For those who are wondering, "shibboleth" refers to a passage in Judges 12 where the Gileadite Border Patrol would encounter someone from Ephraim attempting to enter. The illegal alien would be asked to say "shibboleth," but he could only say "sibboleth" because he could not produce the sh dipthong, thereby outing himself.
P.S. The usual reaction to being outed was "Oh sit!"
If that is the case, perhaps the city name should be changed to reflect the modern ethnicity, something like Dagarious, Indiana. (/s)
I live in Indiana on the Illinois border, and we missed the brunt of the storm and damage and power outages by about a mile. I was at the veterinarian in Schererville when the storm hit, and rode it out there. It was an experience, as Schererville was one of the places hit the hardest.
300,000 out of 500,000 Nipsco customers lost power, some for well over a week. I read that 95% of Lake County was affected. 10,000 are still without power as of this morning. I can’t say I blame Nipsco for giving priority to places where their crews won’t get shot at.
I was on a jury a few years back for a murder trial. The accused, a Gary man, shot his buddy nine times with an AK-47 at two in the morning. (He isn’t eligible for parole until 2066.) Of course, a lot of Gary cops testified, and I have to say I left that experience with a new level of respect for these men and what they have to put up with day in and day out.
When we lost power for up to 14 days in 98 we brought steaming pots of soup and sandwiches and drinks out to the power men. And they worked their bottoms off for us. Wonderful guys, all of them.
The linemen who came to Houston were shot at and/or their trucks were looted or stolen.
Houston has a dimrat mayor and dimrat city council.
I left there 40 years ago and don’t miss any of it.
I saw this story on another site. Someone has posted @BlvckJxsus’s X post, plus the response from another X subscriber, which said: “Where I live, we have an agreement not to shoot the linemen that show up to fix the power. You might want to try to adopt that plan in Gary.”
In 1964 we traversed Gary, Indiana. Never so happy to leave a place as we were that one. Gary and Whiting, two of the many arse holes of the world.
Meters are now read remotely. I wonder if the next step isn't to replace meters with ones than can be remotely switched off. (The someone would tell them how to bypass the meters completely. There were people on Long Island, New York who did that for decades. They only bypassed some branch circuits so they still got electric bilss.)
When you drive through Gary on the interstate, you see something you know you would never willingly exit into. Just keep going—there’s nothing good for you, there.
Same BS with grocery stores closing. People like this broad blame everything and everyone else, except the fact that businesses cannot be forced to operate at a loss. Rampant theft, shoplifting, shrinkage. Look in the mirror, Bitch.
So very tired of belligerently ignorant whack jobs with diarrhea of the mouth.
Same thing here. Fix your own damn power lines, assholes. Good Luck.
We went without power for about 10 days after Sandy and there were crews from up and down the East Coast here in NJ working their asses off restoring power to us. My daughter and I drove around handing out Dunkin Donuts gift cards to the crews who couldnt have been more grascious and appreciative.
“I spent a week there one day.” John Denver
Funny how it works that way ...
Steal from the grocery stores, until they go out of business. Then complain about being in a 'food desert'.
Refuse to be a "snitch". Then complain when the cops don't arrest the gang-bangers and drug dealers infesting the neighborhood.
Shoot at the utility repair crews. Then complain that the power is still out.
"Black" culture is irretrievably broken.
So, it wasn’t environmental racism, it was environmental gunfire.
If you are over the age of fifty, you might hear the words “Gary, Indiana” and instantly think of The Music Man.
Actually, for me, The Jackson Five.
If you are over the age of fifty, you might hear the words “Gary, Indiana” and instantly think of The Music Man.
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Actually, for me, The Jackson Five.
++++++++++++++
Nope. For me it means - Please dear God don’t let the car break down here. I did my university studies at Valparaiso while home was in the Chicago suburbs. Drove past Gary more times than I care to remember.
As for Whiting, that sh!thole was well depicted in the “Fugitive” with Tommy Lee Jones. The scene where Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard blows away the bad dude in the crack house whilst shooting past the hostage’s (young detective) head.
Nope. For me it means - Please dear God don’t let the car break down here. I did my university studies at Valparaiso while home was in the Chicago suburbs. Drove past Gary more times than I care to remember.
“Hey kids you noticing all this plight!”
I remember Gary Indiana as the iron citadel of King Creosote, monarch of the coal tar distilates, and man’s silent ally in the never-ending fight against wood rot.
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