Community | November 21, 2009 | 34 comments

Unclaimed dead stack up

source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6926247.ece

Image
asherp
The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to each toe, lie one above the other on steel racks inside a giant freezer in Detroit’s central mortuary, like discarded shoes in the back of a wardrobe.

Some have lain here for years, but in recent months the number of unclaimed bodies has reached a record high. For in this city that once symbolised the American Dream many cannot even afford to bury their dead.

“I have not seen this many unclaimed bodies in 13 years on the job,” said Albert Samuels, chief investigator at the mortuary. “It started happening when the economy went south last year. I have never seen this many people struggling to give people their last resting place.”

Unburied bodies piling up in the city mortuary — it reached 70 earlier this year — is the latest and perhaps most appalling indignity to be heaped on the people of Detroit. The motor city that once boasted the highest median income and home ownership rate in the US is today in the midst of a long and agonising death spiral.

{read full article at link]
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Current Tonight,   US Politics,   7 more
  2. tags:
    Poverty,  Detroit,  Dead,  NAFTA
  3.     
    |

34 comments // Unclaimed dead stack up

  • ploomis
  • ankab
    • 0
      ankab  

    • Look NotFooled that contributor was so on the money about Ayn Rand & the religious outrages. Who was the third person? Are you sure you are notfooled. You sound fooled to me?

    • 2 years ago
  • DDukes94
  • MarFlo0266
  • CalPerr
    • 0
      CalPerr  

    • I think the governments during the black plague did better. Atleast they had a cart that came by to collect the dead. "Bring out cha' dead!! Bring out cha' dead!!"

      Bail out maybe? No wait I forgot, AIG is way more important than THE LIVES(and deaths) OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. I mean, who cares about these people, bank's execs almost didnt get their BONUS.

    • 2 years ago
  • molson1946
    • 0
      molson1946  

    • That's Detroit, city that once symbolised the American Dream. Wasn't the American dream built around the unionized auto industry, which is now gone. I have worked for 3 union plants, now all closed. Sorry I read this article.

    • 2 years ago
  • ChristopherX
  • omshaantih
  • krtwils
    • 0
      krtwils  

    • um do you ppl not see the larger picture? I am for conservation but these are people and they have already been discarded like trash. no matter what economic problems we are facing we should have respect for human life.(and all life) plus if it was ur body maybe you wouldn't mind if it was used for fertilizer but i believe it might bother you if no one cared that u were dead. (I blame religion we fix our problems not a fictitious deity)

    • 2 years ago
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  
    • krtwils:

      I don't blame religion. I blame the Right wing coopting and totally fucking over religious values.

      They've taken the Atheistic, nay, Satanic, selfish, individualist bullshit of Ayn Rand, and married it to Christianity, and really the two could not be more different. Even the most extreme forms of Islam have more respect for the poor than these Ayn Rand dickheads.

    • 2 years ago
  • oneup
    • 0
      oneup  
    • krtwils:

      Exactly. The point is that people should be given proper burials and not held in some kind of limbo on account of financial difficulty. Look at how ridiculous caskets, funeral arrangements are. Ridiculous that people place so much emphasis on the appearance of things and not the reality of the situation.

    • 2 years ago
  • NotFooled
    • 0
      NotFooled  
    • krtwils:

      This is the most stupid statement I believe I have ever seen on this site. What in the world does religion have to do with people not taking responsibility for there own relatives. Do any of the three of you have any sense, common or learned ?

    • 2 years ago
  • oneup
  • ankab
  • extracrazykiwi2008
  • LowShred
    • 0
      LowShred  

    • Oh Detroit, you never cease to amaze me. If you guys think that's bad, those are the bodies they found. It's not uncommon to see a dead guy in an alleyway or witness a shooting/stabbing/mugging.

      I still love my city though.

    • 2 years ago
  • EtVoila
    • 0
      EtVoila  

    • I recently saw a movie called "A Certain Kind of Death" that shows the procedures of handling someone who dies without any known living relatives. It makes you want to be sure to never die alone, watching the workers coolly handling your remains, belongings, and money. It's just business as usual, and it's expensive business as usual, at that.

    • 2 years ago
  • think_free
    • 0
      think_free  

    • I'm there with the Brave New World fertilizer.
      Why are they using so much electricity to keep the bodies in the cooler??
      Burn or bury, but quit wasting!

    • 2 years ago
  • Zdonick
  • TheBrownKid
  • MNNASH
  • bailey78
  • MotherForTruth
    • +1
      MotherForTruth  

    • It's about time to take off the pick glasses and realize we lost "American dream" and we all must speak up and change the wrongs to get our “American dream” back.

    • 2 years ago
  • MRprez
    • 0
      MRprez  
    • MotherForTruth:

      as it seems our biggest problem is where to start.. all of are efforts are so spread out it becomes too weak to do anything.. looks like its time for america to agree on where to start first.. too bad that'll happen when hell freezes over lol

    • 2 years ago
  • fullmetalartimis
  • CalPerr
    • 0
      CalPerr  
    • MotherForTruth:

      Bill:The zombie's are coming up the hill!! Reload this shotgun for me.

      Bob:Yea, yea, but first, how do you feel about abortion?

      Bill:What?!?!?! Reload the damn shotgun xombies are going to eat your brain.

      Bob:I will, just answer me first.

      Bill:God damn it.

      XZombee: Numm anumm yum num.

    • 2 years ago
  • AsperGirl
  • magic6435
  • MRprez
  • omshaantih
  • dirtycurty
  • Ihatethemall
  • MRprez
more from Community:
from the community

top videos