Harlem resident Tami Treadwell’s grief turned to anger after her husband, Gregory Anthony Treadwell, died at home from suspected coronavirus. When the emergency responders came to the house, they performed CPR on Gregory but he did not respond. They then informed Tami that her husband’s remains would be left in the home. The city medical examiner’s office said it could take “three hours to three days” to pick the remains up.
Tami, 57, had to search for someone to retrieve the body. The family called more than 20 funeral homes before one in New Jersey agreed to take the body, which the family had put on ice. NYC morgues and funeral homes have been unable to meet the demand due to the city’s high COVID-19 death rate.
The owner of popular food truck Harlem Seafood Soul, Tami is known as the “seafood queen of Harlem.”
She cried as she was being filmed retelling her traumatic ordeal from the sidewalk and slammed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The video was posted by the New York Post.
“This is our city, and we’re being treated like sh*t! It’s grossly inhumane. I say shame on you Mayor de Blasio…you got to designate somebody to come get these bodies out of here, people who died at home. How dare you make us have to deal with that and to live with the body for days? How dare you, Mayor de Blasio? And you can’t blame that sh*t on Trump. You can’t blame that sh*t on Cuomo!”
Gregory Treadwell, 62, was a tractor-trailer driver for a local produce delivery company. He was the father of four children ranging in age from 9 to 37.
“He had a cold for five days. He came home yesterday with a temperature. We talked to the doctor, and the doctor said don’t go to the hospital. Stay home,” his wife told The New York Post. “He has been working this whole time delivering things. He didn’t even want to stay home, because they need him so much at work.”
The mayor has been criticized for his delayed response to the pandemic, which has claimed 12,509 lives and infected 162,000 New York City residents to date, according to Wikipedia.
“The catastrophic spread of the virus, which has claimed young and old, the anonymous poor and civic heroes, has also put a national microscope on de Blasio, a two-term mayor whose estimable progressive record is often overshadowed by a long-running rivalry with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a difficult relationship with the local press corps,” CNN reported.
A New York Magazine article ran the recent headline, “When New York Needed Him Most, Bill de Blasio Had His Worst Week As Mayor.” Politico’s New York bureau published another biting account, which described the mayor as “serially indecisive or, worse, unduly skeptical of expert warnings.”
On social media, people responded with support for Tami’s outpouring of grief and anger against the government.
“This is unacceptable in a first world country! We want answers and people held accountble. Period!” one person tweeted.
Another tweeted, “This is the result of our institutions (@TheBlackCaucus @NAACP, etc.) falling asleep at the wheel and not getting resources specifically for our group. We see a woman in exteme agony, they see the news as usual. They view this as normal for Americas bottom caste.”
@KDaktar called for reparations. “This is so sadly horrible when government isn’t working for ADOS. REPARATIONS are due.”
