Why ARE We Afraid of the Mentally Ill?

Last month 10-year-old Quintonio LeGrier was shot dead by a Chicago police officer after his father placed a 911 call because LeGrier was acting irrationally, wielding a baseball bat. This was not his first confrontation with the law but the death of LeGrier, who suffered from mental illness, gained national attention because a bystander was also killed.

10 days after Michael Brown was gunned down in Ferguson, MO. a young man suffering from mental illness, named Kajieme Powell was fatally sho...