What's happening on State St?

It’s closed off right now. A man crashed due to getting shot at by 3 vehicles, with multiple guns in those vehicles. Police are currently searching for them as we speak. The man who crashed has sadly died.

Wait, so you’re telling me that three cars with multiple shooters all targeting the same guy? So potentially 6 or more people all coordinating on this?

Apparently. That’s what my police scanner has been telling me. Multiple people in multiple cars with multiple guns are out right now. Terrifying.

Rutland Police say no danger to the public, but still scary stuff!

https://www.mynbc5.com/amp/article/person-dead-in-rutland-shooting/41891530

Thank god. I was very worried about if they were going to shoot more people.

Jesus fuck! What the hell!?

Yeah. It’s down in the area where crime happens a lot, but never this bad.

My husband told me there was a shooting but that seems overkill! Who was this guy?

I don’t know the name of the guy yet. No updates to my knowledge. Recommend watching channel 3 news.

The drug violence has really been cranked up lately

It really has. Scary.

Same in Burl. State Police are now on the beat, but since then incidents persist at higher than usual pace. Poverty and drug escapism are intertwined, and the market is bigger in recent years so the drug gangs are around. It's not unique to VT, it's more that VT is catching up to the norm in semi-urban areas like Ruts and Burl.

People get poorer and crime goes up

Whoa. Vermont is getting Street cred.

And somebody was just trying to tell me “Rutland isn’t that bad”

That reminded me this, for some reason

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Go give Chicago a try if you think Rutland is that bad.

It’s one of the best places to live in the state, but like in any location if you are involved with hard drugs it’s going to be dangerous.

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You're seriously trying to compare a city of 2.7 million people with one that has 16,000?

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I'm pretty torn on Rutland. I grew up in West Castleton and went to Rutland all the time. That's where we'd go shopping, to the movies, out to dinner, etc. It was pretty wild back in the day. Went there every weekend with my buddies in high school and whenever I was back home to hit the bars - used my first fake ID at what is now Strangefellows Pub. Can't remember the name but there were still parking garages there. While some parts of Rutland are sketch, there's a lot of cool sections of town now - some nice additions. Although, when I was a kid, it was like "ooohh stay away from the Gut." Funny how tame it really was. Some quick memories.

At 15 I went to the movies with my buddies and when it got out we climbed the fire escape and got on top of the building that housed the old bus stop. Looks like it's where Just Threading is now. Anyway, we urinated off the roof onto the sidewalk on Merchant's Row. My idea. This was probably 9:00 PM or so and there were people about. We caused quite a commotion and tried to ditch. I was the first one off the fire escape and just missed being grabbed by the two cops who were running down the alley. I bolted, but they got my three buddies. I ran to the corner of a building and peeked around and the cop hollered, "Get your ass back here, NOW." I complied. They took us to the station, which I think was, like, right there. Gave us a ton of shit and asked who was our ride. It was my dad, who was having dinner in a Mexican restaurant on Center Street. They called the restaurant and got him and he was PISSED (no pun intended) and made us stay at the station for, like, 2 hours. Can't remember what my punishment was but it was SOOO worth it.

The other thing I remember is getting creative about having sex as I had girlfriends that lived in Rutland and their parents were always home. Some of the locations include the baseball dugout at Giogetti Park, Calvary Cemetery (usual spot as she lived near there; either in her Chevette or my 1972 puke green Pinto), parking lot at Earle's Truck Repair (don't think it was called that then), and countess other nooks and crannies around town. The one that took the cake was at some school inside a kid's crawl through tube in a playground. It was probably three feet wide and ten feet long. This was right after I graduated HS and was dating a 21-year-old who lived at home. Don't know how, but some cop figured out we were there - maybe saw the car and suspected vandals, who knows - and came over and banged on the plastic tunnel and told us to cut the shit. We fumbled our clothes back on and clambered out. Turns out the cop graduated with my girlfriend and she was MORTIFIED. I, however, was quite amused.

Got plenty more, but my fingers are tired. Thank you Rutland.

Honestly it doesn't seem that far off. I just used the FBI's Uniform crime reporting program to see there were 74 reported violent crimes in Rutland city in 2021.

That's a violent crime rate of 467 per 100,000 people. Chicago had a violand crime rate of 639.7 per 100,000 people in 2021. Sure, it's a difference but they're much closer than I would have expected.

You can either take this to mean that Rutland is dangerous or Chicago isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I believe in the latter.

Yup. If you think it's that bad here then go give a Chicago a try. You pick up what I'm putting down?