This Is How Horribly They're Treating the Dead in Brooklyn (WARNING! GRAPHIC)

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/photo-of-andrew-d-cleckley-funeral-home-shows-how-horribly-theyre-treating-the-dead-in-brooklyn



Before police found decomposing bodies in trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home, a mourner saw a horrifying sign it was overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael Daly
Special Correspondent
Updated May. 01, 2020 8:19AM ET / Published May. 01, 2020 4:40AM ET

Zeqway Clarke was in the back pew in the upstairs chapel at the Andrew D. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn when he chanced to gaze under the coffin and see what looked like a bare foot.

“You could see it,” he later told The Daily Beast. “You could actually look under the casket and see it. I asked somebody else, ‘Is that a foot?’”

Clarke was there on April 9 with his wife and daughters and a small number of relatives in masks and gloves, bidding farewell to her grandfather, 88 year-old Francois Jules. The pastor continued conducting the service as Clarke gazed at what was indeed a bare foot visible beneath the hem of the cloth backdrop closing off the front of the room.

At the end of the service, Clarke went up for a final parting moment with Jules, a military veteran and retired graveyard security guard, who was recovering from a stroke in Kings County Hospital when he was fatally struck by COVID-19. Clarke used the moment by the coffin to raise his cellphone above the cord on which the backdrop hung.

“I stuck the phone up and took a picture,” the 39-year-old entrepreneur recalled.

He did not see the result until he returned to his seat and checked his phone.

“It was just bodies, bodies on the floor, people on top of each other,” he said.
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OMG!

[malaise]

1. Horrific

This is a Caribbean community

[Botany]

2. This is a picture from WW II when the allies liberated "the camps" except the bodies were not ...

.... skin and bones.

And this is ALL on Trump too.

[sop]

4. Trump's Holocaust.

First it was images of caged children, now this.

[sop]

3. That's the most shocking image I've seen yet, truly horrific.

[Dennis Donovan]

5. Yeah, this pic fucks me up a bit...

[smirkymonkey]

6. Horrifying.

[MissB]

7. This is not how we treat our dead.

It simply isn’t. We expect our dead to be treated with dignity. This isn’t dignified.

It’s why it horrified us so.

[greenjar_01]

12. You deal with fifty dead bodies when you have capacity for thirty-five

Let me know how you do the dignity part.

[MissB]

15. You mistake my statements for judgment

It wasn’t a judgment - it was simply an explanation for why this hits us all as being so horrific. We, as a society, have expectations for how we handle our dead.

[greenjar_01]

16. I apologize

I've seen so many people attacking these homes, and a lot attacking NYC, that I jumped to conclusions. I'm sorry.

[MissB]

17. It's all good - no need to apologize

The whole situation is just horrific. I see the numbers of dead overall for New York and just can not comprehend that number of people just...gone.

The Trump administration has neither the capacity nor the compassion to deal with this crisis and it’s aftermath.

[58Sunliner]

26. Cardboard boxes. Wrap them in sheets and use a shelving unit.

[dewsgirl]

8. How absolutely devastating💔

[58Sunliner]

9. How could they do that? Traumatic.

Unless they are all embalmed, it is a breeding ground for disease.

[obamanut2012]

20. What else can they do???

They are overwhelmed.

[58Sunliner]

25. Uhmm, I'm gonna bet that they have another option.

Like put them in boxes, not just dump them on the floor behind a screen. If they are embalmed, they are getting paid by someone. Otherwise they would be cremated. And they should turn away business if they can't treat them with some dignity. Get a shelving unit and use sheets at least.

[Mariana]

22. The man who took the picture didn't report an odor

so it seems likely they have been embalmed.

[Maraya1969]

10. These funeral homes have never had to deal with this many dead bodies before. Just

like any business that gets swamped it often turns into chaos.

Those bodies had to have been embalmed I would think or the smell would be too much.

[greenjar_01]

11. I'm getting really pissed off at the idea that people ("those New Yorkers") are "treating the dead"

in some way, as if in moral choice.

They have too many bodies coming too fast to handle them. That's a fact. They are doing the best they can with the flood of dead bodies far in excess of capacity. I should also note that some funeral homes have declined to handle COVID dead, so the ones that are overwhelmed have already made an admirable moral choice on this.

Save your outrage for the front of the pipeline of the dead, not the back end.

[Silent3]

13. +1

Yes, pictures like this are only emblematic of the bigger problem of the pandemic, and of the shame due to those who could have prevented the scale of this tragedy, not of something terrible being done by those overwhelmed by all of the dead bodies.

[crickets]

19. +1 to you and Silent3

[obamanut2012]

21. +1

WTF else can they do? They are at least inside and covered, they are not tossing them into a landfill. It has to be traumatic for the funeral homes, too.

[Dennis Donovan]

24. It was clear to me that the funeral home is doing the best it can.

What's happening now is extremely unnatural and would overwhelm any funeral home. I don't blame them at all. I blame *anyone* who let this get as bad as it did.

There were plans in place on the federal level that were scrapped in the last few years. I'm mad at the motherfuckers who said "fuck these plans, we're gonna wing it."

[dalton99a]

14. Kick

[crickets]

18. Oh how sad.

This isn't just happening in Brooklyn. It's likely happening in many places because the numbers are just so overwhelming. Screw those idiot, selfish protestors. If only they understood that this could happen to them or to their loved ones, and that it is happening to someone's loved ones.

[backtoblue]

23. No excuses

Those bodies could have at least been covered properly and with dignity.

If they ran out of room or resources, the funeral home should have:

Reached out to other area funeral parlors for help
Reached out to the coroner's office for help
Reached out to their state funeral board for guidance
STOPPED accepting bodies once reaching a critical capacity
NOT hold public funerals at their establishment, taking a public health risk by putting multiple dead bodies in the same space. Only a curtain to separate....

As far as the man who captured the photo, I am truly horrified by what he saw as Im sure he is as well.
HOWEVER, send the picture to the police, DHS, mayor, someone....NOT post to social media first.

If you see something SAY something. That goes for the funeral home owners, employees, crematories, and transport services.

[BrightKnight]

27. Yeah but I am sure funeral home

was overwhelmed. What happens if their overworked, frightened, and possibly sick employees don’t show up. IDK, but I would not want to know the full story before I throw too many rocks. Obviously the situation is broken and this should never happen. It is very sad and should be investigated.

[backtoblue]

28. It is sad

Im a retired embalmer. There comes a point where you should know when to reach out for help. I feel bad for the families and employees. This lies squarely on the owner and/or general manager.

It just makes me so frustrated and mad.

Horrible situation...