Race is, of course, always just under the surface when it comes to crime. The fact that these offenders are overwhelmingly young black men makes confronting crime that much more painful, in different ways, for everybody. But I trust people to try to do the right thing, including not backing away from making the city safer — a choice that would entail abandoning the most vulnerable members of society to truly horrifying danger. And that abandonment would ironically fall heaviest on the young men committing these crimes, for they are killing each other at a higher rate than any other offender-victim cohort, by something like a power of ten. That’s a social emergency, and it amazes me that so many opinion-makers continue to question the act of reacting to it.

Joe, I have lived in Atlanta for quite some time, have had a crackhead pull a knife on a buddy of mine when caught breaking into his car and have seen my best friend get jumped a block from our house by 4 guys with guns. Those I am very concerned about, along with the murders and armed robberies. I am less concerned with the burglaries, even though I have been broken into twice in the last year and have had multiple friends get broken into all over downtown.

The violent crimes are what people are rallying against. The criminals are becoming more and more violent. Not sure why you are such a hater. As a white victim of these crimes, I could let race play into it as well and I could begin to be prejudiced/bigoted and start hating, but I don’t. You sure do.

Vernon Forrest was not white, nor was Nikki Neeley, who was shot in the face and her baby was beaten. This is what people are rising up against – these random awful acts of violence. The Blue Jean Bandits? Not as much of an issue. But, then again, just sounds like you are out just to hate and bitch and moan, rather than doing something about it. Sleep well, knowing people are out there fighting for your rights, while you sit at home and rail against yuppies and hipsters. Too bad, I thought at some point we could get past the racial issue.

And are you trying to say that people should now not object when their homes are invaded? That’s ridiculous.

People with jobs pay taxes. They’re already supporting public safety. And when they take additional time to agitate for more safety, everyone, middle-class and poor alike, win. So what, precisely, are you objecting to?

Message: ipods are more important than people. Please Atlanta, take us back to the good old days when the poor were the only victims of crime, as it should be. SCUM!

My personal take is that on a variety of fronts, with a variety of differing opinions, citizens are becoming disgusted with what they see and are choosing to get involved the governing process like they haven’t in a long time. Most of the politicians and the traditional media does not get that, they do not understand what the public sees and so they lash out at the public, to their peril. Perhaps stories like these is why many newspapers are going out of business. When I was in school at Georgia State, they had trouble even giving the AJC away.

To the news media, a murder is something you fit between your sappy story and your deal of the day. As long as the numbers go down, there is no reason to get alarmed. It is newsworthy in a good way. Citizens tend to, for some reason, see it as it could have been them and that scares them.

-Daniel