A web chat on Baltimore

How far is Atlanta from being another Baltimore? AJC Opinion writer Rick Badie hosted a live chat Wednesday in which readers considered that question. Here’s a sampling of comments:

Joseph: "With the climate today, protest around these issues will be aggressive and confrontational. People are mad, and they're not seeing progress. I guess I think that we should embrace and accept that as legitimate, even if it feels uncomfortable, because trying to suppress it and keep everyone calm and peaceful results in that frustration building up to the point that you see something like Baltimore."

• Nickolas Cain: "For the question, 'Do I believe this can happen in Atlanta?' I'm sure it can, but there are a lot of good community leaders in these low-economic areas. I believe now is a great time to show face and develop something to deter them by giving them something positive to do and stand by. If people saw how bad Baltimore looked, then they would understand they are the forgotten people in that city. That place looks like a Third World country, or like those old neighborhoods in the early 1900s in New York. They literally had/have no hope. This is way bigger than Freddie Gray."

• Joseph: "To be honest, I think riot situations like Baltimore's happen specifically because people feel disaffected with peaceful, public assembly. It's that sense of ultimate despair when it becomes apparent they're not hearing your chant, not reading your sign. I think something needs to be done to honor and validate that anger and despair, because channeling it into activities that don't get results will just make it worse."

• Dee Dee: "I would love to see Atlanta demonstrate a peaceful way to bring to light inequality and injustice and hurt among different races. And why not? We just have to rise up and do it. Shouldn't we show the rest of the country an example of how to protest these things peacefully and fight to make them right in a loving way rather than a violent way? There are so many parts of our great city that go invisible unjustly. Are we really so wishful to think Ferguson and Baltimore aren't in our own backyard? Though I truly do have faith that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is fighting these issues in ways other politicians are not."

• Childplease: "Y'all keep saying 'the issue,' but have we defined the issue? Is this a policing issue or a racial issue or some combination of issues? Without understanding the crux of the problem, how can we discuss potential solutions?"