VOL. CLXII . . . No. 56,223 © 2013 The New York Times NEW YORK, FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2013
Late EditionToday, cloudy, showers, heavythunderstorms, humid, high 82. To-night, a shower, a thunderstorm,low 72. Tomorrow, less humid, high86. Weather map on Page B16.
$2.50
By DANNY HAKIM
ALBANY — One state workerbit a patient’s ear.
Another sent threatening textmessages to a female co-worker,according to state records, in-cluding one that said: “I’m gonnagut you like a fish blondie. Don’teven try to call the police.”
A third, a nurse, left a patientnaked and bleeding from a headinjury on a bathroom floor, soak-ing in his own feces.
And a fourth knocked a grouphome resident out of a chair, hitthe resident on the back of thehead and squirted water from abottle in the resident’s face.
All of these state employeescare for people with developmen-tal disabilities or mental illness-es. They were all found culpableof wrongdoing in internal disci-plinary proceedings. But nonewere fired.
Two and a half years ago, TheNew York Times published an ar-ticle about abusive employeeswho worked for the state, de-tailing how few employees were
State LaggingOn DismissalsIn Abuse Cases
Continued on Page A17
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
MOSCOW — A business ownerin Russia has a better chance ofending up in the penal colonysystem once known as the gulagthan a common burglar does.
More than 110,000 people areserving time for what Russiacalls “economic crimes,” out of apopulation of about three millionself-employed people and ownersof small and medium-size busi-nesses. An additional 2,500 are injails awaiting trial for this class ofcrimes that includes fraud, butcan also include embezzlement,counterfeiting and tax evasion.
But with the Russian economylanguishing, President VladimirV. Putin has devised a plan forturning things around: offer am-nesty to some of the imprisonedbusiness people.
“This can be understood in theRussian context,” Boris Titov, Mr.Putin’s ombudsman for entrepre-neurs’ rights, said of what is,
even by the standards of the glo-bal recession, a highly unusualstimulus effort.
The amnesty is needed, hesaid, because the governmenthad “overreacted” to the threatof organized crime and the ineq-uities of privatization and over-prosecuted entrepreneurs duringMr. Putin’s first 12 years in poweras president and prime minister.
Russia’s economy does needhelp. In the first quarter, growthfell to a rate of 1.6 percent be-cause oil prices are level. And inthat economic climate, few Rus-sians seem willing to risk open-ing a new business that mightcreate jobs and tax revenue forthe government.
Mr. Putin told an audience ofchief executives at an economicforum, including Michael L. Cor-bat of Citigroup and Jeffrey R.Immelt of General Electric, thatreleasing some businessmenwould help revive the economywith “the values of economicfreedom and the work and suc-cess of entrepreneurs.”
In 2010, the police investigateda total of 276,435 “economiccrimes,” according to the Russianprosecutor general’s office,whose statistics show burglaryand robbery are prosecuted lessthan economic crimes.
So many Russian businessowners are doing time that sup-port groups have sprung up inMoscow for their families knownas “The 159 Society.” It takes itsname from the article on fraud inthe criminal code. Rus Sidyash-chaya, or Russia Behind Bars, or-ganizes weekly dinners for thewives of imprisoned business-men.
Russia’s Stimulus Plan: Open the Gulag Gates
Continued on Page A3
The Job Creators,
Many in Jail, May
Get Amnesty
By KATE TAYLOR
Seated on a dais, before acrowd of men and women stillpicking at their breakfast of friedchicken, sausage, eggs and grits,Eliot Spitzer smiled.
A series of ministers intro-duced him to the audience of 80Brooklyn pastors and churchgo-ers as “a brother” and “a friend.”The audience shouted “Oh yeah”and “All right” as the Rev. John-ny Ray Youngblood, alluding toMr. Spitzer’s prostitution scan-dal, said, “We have all sinned andcome short before the glory ofGod.”
The gathering Thursday morn-ing, at First Baptist Church ofCrown Heights, was the latest in-dication of a striking phenom-enon in New York City politicsthis year: as Mr. Spitzer, a candi-date for comptroller, and Antho-ny D. Weiner, a candidate formayor, crisscross the city askingresidents to look beyond sexualscandal and choose them for highoffice, they are finding unexpect-edly strong support in black com-munities.
Repeated polling has found aracial gap in the races for mayorand comptroller: black voters arefar more likely than white votersto view Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Wei-ner favorably, and more likely tosay they deserve a secondchance. And the statistical evi-dence is reinforced on the cam-paign trail: last week, for exam-ple, the predominantly black au-dience at a mayoral forum in
Laurelton, Queens, cheered Mr.Weiner and jeered at anothercandidate, George T. McDonald,a Republican, who called Mr.Weiner a “freak.”
Interviews with black minis-ters, political leaders, scholarsand voters suggest two majorfactors at work: an emphasis inblack congregations on forgive-ness and redemption, and an ex-perience, particularly among old-er black voters, of having seen
their revered leaders embroiledin scandal.
“You can’t think of any majorblack leader that did not havesome kind of legal or other kindof media attack, so we are not asprone to believe the attacks asother communities,” the Rev. AlSharpton said in an interview.
Mr. Youngblood agreed, say-ing, “When we as African Ameri-cans look at our history, our ownDr. Martin Luther King, or own
Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, therehas always been something in aperson’s life that others sought touse against their greater good.”
Both candidates have mademajor efforts to reach out toblack voters. Mr. Weiner held hisfirst campaign event at a subwaystop in Harlem, and he has spentmany Sundays since visitingblack churches, where his re-marks about the behavior that
Among Blacks, Spitzer and Weiner Find a More Forgiving Crowd
DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Eliot Spitzer, at Bethany Baptist Church in Queens, is viewed more favorably by black voters.
Continued on Page A16
Regulators are seeking a rare admissionof wrongdoing from JPMorgan. PAGE B1
BUSINESS DAY B1-8
S.E.C. Is Said to Press Bank
As the special inspector general for Af-ghan reconstruction, John F. Sopko isnot afraid to upset generals and diplo-mats if it helps fight waste. PAGE A7
INTERNATIONAL A4-8
Aid Overseer’s Blunt StanceA teenager in Florida caught leaving hissignature on a wall dies after beingshocked with a Taser by the police. Hisfamily wants an investigation. PAGE A9
NATIONAL A9-12
Youth Dies After Taser Shock
A Carsten Nicolai installation that useswaves, mirrors and projections to createdisplays is part of “Soundings: A Con-temporary Score” at the Museum ofModern Art. The exhibition features art-ists who use sound as a form of expres-sion. PAGE C21
WEEKEND C1-28
Seeing the Sounds at MoMA
With Alex Rodriguez returning to theBronx, a look at times when fans booedplayers from their own team. PAGE B14
SPORTSFRIDAY B10-16
Hometown Boos
A fugitive who worked at HSBC says hehas data on Swiss accounts. PAGE B1
Swiss Banking Whistle-Blower
Rio de Janeiro officials are finding foodsafety violations at some of the city’smost exclusive restaurants. PAGE A4
Microscope on Brazil KitchensThe Capitol Power Plant in Washingtonexemplifies the government’s inabilityto green its own turf. PAGE A9
Congress and Dirty Fuel
David Brooks PAGE A19
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19
A grand jury decided not to indict a po-lice officer who fatally shot an unarmed18-year-old in the Bronx. PAGE A13
NEW YORK A13-17
Police Killing Won’t Go to TrialA versatile character actress known forher roles in “Easy Rider” and “FiveEasy Pieces,” she died at 74. PAGE B9
OBITUARIES B8-9
Karen Black, Film Actress
By SAMANTHA STOREY
They are skateboarders with-out skateboards, urban acrobatswho scale walls, hurdle mail-boxes and leap between buildingsin stunts that might give Spider-Man pause.
Practitioners of parkour, a dar-ing pastime born in the streets,have long seen public spaces astheir playground, and parkour asthe ultimate rebel’s game, onewith no rules, league, equipmentor winners. It started in France(the name is derived from theFrench word for “course”) andhas spread around the world:Gaza, Tokyo, Rome and Miamiare parkour towns.
One thread binds them all: par-kour takes place outdoors. Bring-ing it inside, purists argue, wouldbe like asking swimmers to per-fect the breaststroke on grass.
But now, parkour has grownup, traded the pavement for pad-ding and turned into a big busi-ness.
Parkour gyms have openedacross the country, from Los An-geles to Rochester, featuring
juice bars, private classes andchildren’s birthday parties thatcost $450 (cake not included).Specialized apparel companiessell tailored gloves for $34.50 andshoes for $60. An internationalorganization offers special par-kour insurance policies andcharges $295 for teacher certifi-cation courses.
“Parkour is definitely blowingup,” said Shem Rajoon, 27, anowner of Bklyn Beast, a parkourgym in East Williamsburg,Brooklyn, that opened this year.“I see it becoming somethingvery mainstream.”
While the gyms’ owners say
A Pastime Born on the Streets
Moves Indoors and Uptown
EMILY BERL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
A parkour session at a gym.
Continued on Page B11
By ANNE BARNARDand ERIC SCHMITT
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As for-eign fighters pour into Syria at anincreasing clip, extremist groupsare carving out pockets of territo-ry that are becoming havens forIslamist militants, posing whatUnited States and Western intel-ligence officials say may be de-veloping into one of the biggestterrorist threats in the world to-day.
Known as fierce fighters will-ing to employ suicide car bombs,the jihadist groups now includemore than 6,000 foreigners, coun-terterrorism officials say, addingthat such fighters are streaminginto Syria in greater numbersthan went into Iraq at the heightof the insurgency there againstthe American occupation.
Many of the militants are partof the Nusra Front, an extremistgroup whose fighters havegained a reputation over the pastseveral months as some of themost effective in the opposition.
But others are assembling un-der a new, even more extremeumbrella group, the Islamic Statein Iraq and Syria, that is mergingsome Syrians with fighters fromaround the world — Chechnya,Pakistan, Egypt and the West, aswell as Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sun-ni insurgent group that rose toprominence in the fight againstthe American occupation in theyears after the 2003 invasion. Theconcern is that a new affiliate ofAl Qaeda could be emerging fromthose groups.
It was the fear of militantscoming to dominate the opposi-tion that caused the UnitedStates and its Western allies tohold off providing lethal aid to theSyrian opposition, at least untilnow. But as a result, counterter-rorism analysts say, they lost achance to influence the battle inSyria. Even Congressional sup-porters of the C.I.A.’s covert pro-gram to arm moderate elementsof the Syrian opposition fear thedelivery of weapons, set to beginthis month, will be too little, too
MILITANTS FLOODHAVENS IN SYRIA,POSING A THREAT
CARVING OUT TERRITORY
6,000 Foreign Fighters
— Western Officials
Fear Qaeda Rise
REUTERS
Free Syrian Army fighters near the Menagh air base in Aleppo Province, which rebels captured this week after months of trying.
Continued on Page A6
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
The Detroit Effect has rippledall the way to Wall Street.
Two weeks after Detroit de-clared bankruptcy, cities, coun-ties and other local governmentsin Michigan are getting a coldshoulder in the municipal bondmarket.
The judgment has been swiftand brutal. Borrowing costs areup around the state, in somecases drastically. On Thursday,Saginaw County became the lat-est casualty when it said it wasdelaying a $60 million bond saleplanned for Friday. It had hopedto put the proceeds into its pen-sion fund.
It was the third postponedbond sale in Michigan since De-troit dropped its bombshell onJuly 18. Earlier this week, the cityof Battle Creek said it would post-pone a $16 million deal scheduledfor August because of concernsthat investors would demand in-terest rates that were too high.And the previous week, GeneseeCounty withdrew a $54 millionbond from the market for thesame reason.
Detroit’s bankruptcy, the larg-est ever by a municipality, hasraised fundamental concernsabout the safety and security ofmunicipal bonds, certainly inMichigan but potentially else-where in the country, too. Themunicipal bond market appearsto be sending Michigan’s cities amessage that no matter how wellrated they are, they are going tohave to postpone their plans andprojects or pay more for them.
When Jefferson County, Ala.,declared bankruptcy in 2011,there were warnings it had taint-ed the credit of all other munici-palities in the state, but the ex-
Continued on Page A3
WOES OF DETROITHURT BORROWINGBY ITS NEIGHBORS
NO FAITH, LITTLE CREDIT
City Bankruptcy Leaves
Bond Market Wary of
Michigan Deals
Jim Furyk and Adam Scott are tied forthe P.G.A. Championship lead. PAGE B10
Tie at the Top
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