Late last month, Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, was fatally stabbed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Though it has taken weeks for details to emerge, we now know that the alleged killer, Decarlos Brown, Jr., had an untreated serious mental illness. We learned this through his family’s testimony to reporters, which, because of health-privacy laws, is the standard way Americans learn of links between mental-health-system failures and violence.
Mentally ill people commit various kinds of violence, some of which require organization and planning. But mental illness is especially associated with crimes against relatives and total strangers, as Iryna Zarutska was to Decarlos Brown, Jr.
Finally, a reason to check your email.…