An outpouring of sympathy resulted from an Aug. 6 story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the city’s failure to compensate Vivian Bey for an egregious injustice she suffered in her house in Homewood in February of last year.
SWAT teams from Pittsburgh and Monroeville busted down her front door on a cold night, guns drawn. They thought a kidnapping victim was at her address. They were mistaken.
Mrs. Bey got out of bed, trembling, and was terrified when the police began coming up her stairs. She said she is still unable to sleep at night.
The police left the 82-year-old woman and her daughter, Dorothy, who had rushed to the scene that cold night, in the house with no security and the cold pouring in.
It seemed to matter to some people whether the police apologized. They did, Mrs. Bey said, “but what does an apology do?”
Since then, Mrs. Bey and her daughter have been trying to get the city to make it right, but the city has insisted that her insurance kick in. Mrs. Bey was adamant that it was not her insurance that needed to pay. Why should her insurance pay and her rates go up for something that someone else was responsible for?
The city has a protocol, apparently, which is understandable only in theory. In the real world, the one where people, especially Black people, are abused by authorities, the city should have paid the $3,000 that she wanted in compensation quickly and graciously.
She had trouble getting an attorney to take her case, but she has since procured one. Still, nothing from the city.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts to reach the attorney, I had already been fielding emails from readers who wanted to send Mrs. Bey a check. One man offered to pay her for the cost of the replacement door.
One reader, Maddie Rigatti, of Shadyside, found a conversation about the story on Instagram and said five or six people were discussing ways to help Mrs. Bey.
After talking with Mrs. Bey, Ms. Rigatti learned that Mrs. Bey did not know about online fundraising opportunities. Ms. Rigatti set up a Go Fund Me campaign on Aug. 17 and had raised $1,120 in donations two mornings later.
The campaign raised the $3,000 goal within a few more days, and Mrs. Bey now has the money to pay off the replacement door she had to buy on credit. She was a library assistant at CCAC in Homewood before being furloughed in March.
“After we got it set up, I reached out to the other people who had been on Instagram,” Ms. Rigatti said. “A lot of nice people in my circle have donated. I don’t have a lot of faith that the city will make things right for her.”
Ms. Rigatti is a master’s student in social work at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also is working as a research coordinator in geriatric studies.
“Older adults are often disconnected from social media and technology, and I believe this can have an adverse effect on their well-being especially during these isolating times due to COVID-19,” she said. “Social media and technology can also be used as tools to spread awareness and help others in similar situations.
“Just because Ms. Bey was not aware that fundraising was an option through an online platform does not mean that she should be left out of that conversation.”
I never have gotten a response from the city as to how the police got her address. The kidnapping victim, Christina Quick, was restrained in a house in Garfield.
Ms. Quick later said she was kidnapped that night by five masked men outside her Monroeville home and taken to an abandoned house in Pittsburgh, where she was tied to a chair. She said she was able to escape and was found by a resident in Larimer.
Mrs. Bey experienced a horrifying event in her life. She said she thought a car had crashed into her house. Imagine being awakened that way, no matter how old you are. A responsible city not only would have paid her for the door and frame repairs but also would have provided support to help her overcome her trauma.
Mrs. Bey said she was not interested in getting donations beyond the cost of her new door and repair of the frame. She called me to say that she did get more in donations and wanted me to know that her gratitude was profound. She told me she is willing to help someone else with the extra money she got.
I let that sink in a minute. I am still thinking about her own graciousness. But I am thinking just as much about the terror she had to experience and the justice she continues to wait for.
She wants the city to recognize her suffering. In other words, she wants respect.
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com.
First Published: September 28, 2020, 10:15 a.m.
