Transcript
Page 1: IN TAYLOR KILLING AND TWO CLEARED OFFICER CHARGED14 hours ago · C M Y K x,2020-09-24,A,001,Bsx Nx -4C,E2 U(D54G1D)y+@!}!&!$!" IZTAPALAPA, MEXICO The man in the vegetable stall next

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IZTAPALAPA, MEXICO — Theman in the vegetable stall next toChristopher Arriaga’s died first. Alongtime customer was next, thenanother. A few days later, an eld-erly carrot vendor got sick anddied within the week.

Soon, the coronavirus wasstorming the vast, gridded pas-sages of the Central de Abasto, thelargest produce market in theWestern Hemisphere, and Mr. Ar-

riaga’s father fell ill, too. Dozens inthe market died, perhaps hun-dreds. Not even the governmentknows for sure.

“There is this moment whenyou start to see people dying, andthe stress begins to destroy you,”

said Mr. Arriaga, 30. “It made merealize what a trapped animalfeels like.”

Doctors and officials say thesurge of infections nearly over-whelmed them, radiating far fromthe market to areas across the cityand Mexico beyond. It became theepicenter of the epicenter, theteeming heart of a neighborhoodthat has registered more Coviddeaths than any other part of thecapital, which is itself the center of

At Mexico City Market, Risking Death to SurviveBy AZAM AHMED Virus Cases Radiated

From Food Exchange

The Central de Abasto in Iztapalapa is the largest produce market in the Western Hemisphere.DANIEL BEREHULAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

It was to be one of the biggestreal estate projects in New YorkCity in years, a major expansion ofthe Industry City complex on theBrooklyn waterfront that couldhave created as many as 20,000jobs at a time when local unem-ployment has soared because ofthe pandemic.

But on Tuesday night, theproject’s owner canceled the ex-pansion in the face of fierce oppo-sition from left-leaning Demo-crats, ending the biggest clashover development in the city sincethe collapse of the Amazon deal inQueens last year, and highlightingthe growing influence of the left inlocal politics.

The project, which required thecity’s approval to rezone the area,had been cast as a way to bringjobs to an underdeveloped indus-trial section of Sunset Park, andsupporters argued that the city’senormous job losses in recentmonths gave them an even morecompelling reason to move for-ward with plans to create a shop-ping and office behemoth there.New York City’s unemploymentrate last month was 16 percent,nearly twice the national average.

But the area’s councilman andsome community groups opposedthe rezoning, saying that it wouldbe a “luxury mall” that wouldworsen gentrification, and con-tending that job estimates wereinflated. The proposal dividedDemocratic officials, and someleaders — including Mayor Bill deBlasio and the City Councilspeaker, Corey Johnson — stayed

Hostility DoomsCommerce HubAt Brooklyn Site

By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS

Continued on Page A24

CEDARBURG, Wis. — WhenMichael Hicks and his daughterchalked “Black Lives Matter” onthe pavement outside their subur-ban home, someone scrubbed itaway within hours.

Then Mr. Hicks put up a BlackLives Matter sign on his cul-de-sac, only to find it tossed in adumpster. He finally tried stickingsigns in his garden, but a neighborcomplained, and he removedthem to avoid harassment.

“They just seem to want to si-lence you in these suburbs,” saidMr. Hicks, who commutes from acondo in Grafton, Wis., to a Mil-waukee school, where he teacheshealth and physical education.“They’re so happy in their com-fortable bubble.”

As many suburban Americansreject President Trump, threat-ening his re-election like no otherbloc of voters, the suburbs outsideMilwaukee, among the most ra-cially segregated in the country,remain a bulwark of support.

The well-educated, affluentcounties north and west of the cityhave for decades delivered Re-publican landslides, defying aDemocratic shift in suburbia inother Northern states.

Voters such as Mr. Hicks’sneighbors seem to stick to thepresident even more tightly as hehas stoked fears of “anarchists”and “looters” imperiling the sub-urbs, including after the unrest innearby Kenosha. Their enduringsupport is one reason Wisconsinoffers Mr. Trump a still-open pathto re-election, even as his opportu-

Trump BuoyedIn the Suburbs

Of MilwaukeeBy TRIP GABRIEL

Continued on Page A16

WASHINGTON — They camefrom far and near on a bright,warm, early autumn day, the pow-erful and the powerless, filled withappreciation and anxiety, to paytribute to the daughter of a Brook-lyn bookkeeper who changed thelaw of the land so that future gen-erations would not have to facethe obstacles that she overcame.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,the young scholar spurned by ev-ery law firm in New York becauseof her gender before going on tobecome a champion of women’srights and a liberal icon, was hon-ored on Wednesday by a formerpresident, by her colleagues onthe Supreme Court and by longlines of everyday Americans whofelt the influence of her long andstoried career.

“Justice Ginsburg’s life was oneof the many versions of the Ameri-can dream,” Chief Justice John G.Roberts Jr. said during a ceremo-ny inside the court where sheserved for 27 years before herdeath on Friday. “Her father wasan immigrant from Odessa. Hermother was born four months af-ter her family arrived from Po-land. Her mother later worked asa bookkeeper in Brooklyn. Ruthused to ask, ‘What is the differ-ence between a bookkeeper inBrooklyn and a Supreme Courtjustice?’ Her answer: ‘One gener-

ation.’”For a justice who came to enjoy

her improbable late-in-life celebri-ty, it was a modest, unassumingfarewell, but one that movedmany in a country polarized bypolitics and suffering from a horri-ble pandemic. Among those whowaited hours to pass below herflag-draped coffin outside thecourt building were many women,often with daughters or mothers,who saw in Justice Ginsburg asource of personal liberation.

“It’s not only for ourselves, butfor my mother’s generation,” saidLara Gambony, 52, who drovewith her friend Kathleen Dungan,57, from Grayslake, Ill., to be at theSupreme Court. “She forced thecourts to see us as human and thatwe had brains and we deserve ourfull rights.”

Remembering a Justice Who Remembered ThemBy PETER BAKER Ginsburg Forced Courts

‘to See Us as Human,’One Woman Says

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s former clerks were among the mourners Wednesday at the Supreme Court, where she lay in repose.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A18

WASHINGTON — WhiteHouse aides improperly inter-vened to prevent a manuscript byPresident Trump’s former na-tional security adviser John R.Bolton from becoming public, acareer official said in a letter filedin court on Wednesday, accusingthem of making false assertionsthat Mr. Bolton had revealed clas-sified material and suggestingthat they retaliated when she re-fused to go along.

The disclosures by the officialwho oversaw the book’s prepubli-cation review, Ellen Knight, werethe latest in a series of accounts bycurrent and former executivebranch officials as the electionnears accusing the president andhis aides of putting his personaland political goals ahead of thepublic interest and of an even-handed application of the rule oflaw.

In an extraordinary 18-pagedocument, a lawyer for Ms.Knight portrays the Trump ad-ministration as handling its re-sponse to the book in bad faith.Her account implied that the Jus-tice Department may have told acourt that the book contains clas-sified information — and opened acriminal investigation into Mr.Bolton — based on false pre-tenses.

She also said an aide to Mr.Trump “instructed her to tempo-rarily withhold any response” to arequest from Mr. Bolton to reviewa chapter on the president’s deal-ings with Ukraine so it could be re-leased during the impeachmenttrial, wrote Ms. Knight’s lawyer,Kenneth L. Wainstein.

He said that his client had deter-mined in April that Mr. Bolton’sbook, “The Room Where It Hap-pened,” no longer contained anyclassified information, but the“apolitical process” was then“commandeered by political ap-pointees for a seemingly politicalpurpose” to go after Mr. Bolton.The actions she was asked to takewere “unprecedented in her expe-rience,” the letter said.

Ms. Knight, a government clas-sification expert previously as-signed to the National SecurityCouncil, said that political ap-pointees repeatedly asked her tosign a declaration to use againstMr. Bolton that made false as-

Aide RecountsBeing Pressed To Stop Bolton

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTand CHARLIE SAVAGE

Continued on Page A21

Canceling its season, the nation’s larg-est performing arts organization sendsa chilling signal that American culturallife is still far from resuming. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Met Opera Extends ShutdownGale Sayers, the Chicago Bears starwho was known for his effortless,slicing runs, is dead at 77. PAGE B10

SPORTSTHURSDAY B7-10

A Halfback ExtraordinaireXi Jinping made a surprise commit-ment to drastically reduce emissions.Now comes the hard part. PAGE A11

INTERNATIONAL A9-12

China’s Pledge on the Climate

Attorney General William P. Barr isurging lawmakers to reduce a legalshield for the likes of Facebook andYouTube, the latest effort by the WhiteHouse to rein in social media. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Targeting Social MediaCalifornia plans to ban the sale of newones in 15 years, speeding up the bat-tered state’s efforts to fight globalwarming. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A13-21, 24

Sunset for Gas-Powered Cars

Supply-chain problems have inter-rupted Black women’s efforts to stock-pile what has become a fashion stapleduring quarantine. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-7

A Time for Wigs, and a Wait

Football is on hold and other teamsawait news on their futures as athletesprepare for uncertain seasons. PAGE B7

At Cal, Sports Only Have HopesThe bloc offers a carrot as it tries topersuade members to agree to a policyon asylum and deportation. PAGE A9

E.U.’s Plan: Cash for Migrants

Farhad Manjoo PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23Unlike its competitors, Johnson & John-son is working on a coronavirus drugthat requires just one shot. PAGE A5

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8

Vaccine Begins Final Trial

When asked, the president wouldn’tcommit to a peaceful transfer of powerif he loses the election. PAGE A15

Trump Casts Doubt on Handoff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A grandjury weighing evidence in one ofthe country’s most contentiouspolice shootings indicted a formerLouisville police detective oncharges of reckless endanger-ment on Wednesday for his role inthe raid on the home of BreonnaTaylor, but the two officers whoshot Ms. Taylor six times faced nocharges.

Protesters poured into thestreets in Louisville after the an-nouncement, and at least two po-lice officers were shot shortly be-fore a 9 p.m. curfew. There werealso demonstrations in New York,Chicago, Milwaukee and smallercities around the country.

The demonstrators called for allthree officers, who are white, to beheld to account for Ms. Taylor’sdeath in March. The officers hadfired a total of 32 shots after theystormed her Louisville apartmentwith a warrant.

Prosecutors found that the twoofficers who shot Ms. Taylor, whowas Black, were justified in theiruse of force because they hadidentified themselves as officersand had then come under fire fromher boyfriend, who said hethought it was intruders forcingtheir way inside. The chargesagainst former Detective BrettHankison were for firing reck-lessly into a neighbor’s apart-ment.

Ms. Taylor’s death, which camemonths before George Floyd waskilled by the Minneapolis police,became a rallying cry for racialjustice protesters nationwide. On

Wednesday afternoon, hundredsof demonstrators chanted Bre-onna Taylor’s name between sobsand scowls as they wound theirway through the streets of Lou-isville. They carried signs thatsaid “abolish police” and “Blacklives matter.” Dozens of cars fol-lowed, honking their horns.

For more than two hours, thepolice followed in silver cruiserswithout intervening. But eventu-ally a line of officers in riot gearconfronted protesters, releasedchemical agents and arrested sev-eral people in the crowd.

At a news conference onWednesday in Frankfort, Ken-tucky’s attorney general, DanielCameron, walked through thegrand jury’s decision in detail inan effort to defuse the rage.

“The decision before my officeis not to decide if the loss of Bre-onna Taylor’s life was a tragedy —the answer to that question is un-equivocally yes,” he said.

Mr. Cameron, a Republican, ac-knowledged that not everyone

OFFICER CHARGEDAND TWO CLEARED

IN TAYLOR KILLINGProtesters Take Anger and Grief to Streets

— Two From Police Force Are Shot

This article is by Rukmini Calli-machi, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs,John Eligon and Will Wright.

In Louisville, Ky., the decisionprompted anger and grief.

XAVIER BURRELL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A20

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,826 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Today, partly sunny, warm again,high 78. Tonight, partly cloudy, mild.low 64. Tomorrow, sunshine andsome clouds, a warm afternoon,high 80. Weather map, Page B6.

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