FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, August 26. 2026
RACISM blamed for Indiana residents being without power after storms — ignoring that thugs are shooting at utility workers
Some residents of Gary, Indiana, have been without electricity for weeks, and many in the black community are rushing to blame racism and discrimination.
Deadly storms knocked over electricity poles and brought damaging flooding to northeast Indiana, including Gary, and initially knocked out power for about 300,000 residents.
‘It’s full of black people. We the blackest city out here, so they don’t want to check on us.’
While the Northern Indiana Public Service Company has been working to return power to customers, it has been hampered by violence targeting utilities workers.
On Aug. 14, restoration efforts were paused after a utility truck was damaged by gunfire. No injuries were reported.
“These aren’t simple repairs,” said Melody Birmingham, an executive at the parent company of NIPSCO. “These are lines that ordinarily take us, and systems that ordinarily take weeks or months that we are trying to accomplish in days or weeks.”
She rejected accusations that NIPSCO was neglecting the city because a majority of its population is black.
“We have areas that are probably affluent where we still have customers out as well. … This has nothing to do with race or any type of division,” said Birmingham, who is black. “It’s really a matter of where the storm hit.”
Again with the race card. It doesn’t matter what goes on, White people are at fault. Many black and brown people feel they shouldn’t have any consequences for their actions, they cry foul when their actions cause a negative response.They cried in 2020 when George Floyd overdosed unfortunately under the knee of a White police officer. They destroyed businesses, then cried they had nowhere to shop. There have been many store closures recently in predominately black and brown neighborhoods because of the high rate of retail theft and looting, and by guess who? Mostly black and brown people! Of course not every black or brown person was out destroying, looting and stealing at these stores, but enough of them were to cause the closures, and on top of that, many of these businesses didn’t try to stop these criminals in fear of backlash. You can’t let certain races run wild and then expect the good people providing services to remain in these neighborhoods while losing money. It’s not rocket science people.