City government: Is anyone home?

On Feb. 11, 2019, Pittsburgh police bashed in the front door to Vivian Bey’s Homewood home. It was a mistake. Supposedly, police broke down Ms. Bey’s door because of some connection to a kidnapping in Monroeville.

It wasn’t until some time later, after Ms. Bey’s daughter had arrived, that police acknowledged there no connection. They had the wrong person and the wrong house.

Ms. Bey said she went from her bedroom to the staircase when she heard the commotion that set off her security alarm. What she saw were police officers with guns drawn, shouting at her to put her hands in the air.

The Beys said police apologized, but that did little to comfort them. Ms. Bey was left with a broken front door, damaged frame and cold air filling the house on a 33-degree night.

And now, 18 months later, the 82-year-old library clerk is still waiting to be reimbursed for the nearly $3,000 it cost her to replace the damaged door.

Police officials have not explained what happened. Why did officers mistakenly believe Ms. Bey’s house was connected to the kidnapping?

And no one has made her right for the broken door.

What been done is a bureaucratic shuffling of responsibility and delay. Ms. Bey received a letter acknowledging her claim on May 11, 2019.

A second letter recommended that she contact her insurance company about the incident.

City officials most recently said the delay in processing her claim is due to the fact they still need Ms. Bey’s insurance information — something she says she has already provided.

Officials have said the matter is further complicated by the fact that Ms. Bey has switched attorneys.

All of this is profoundly lame and disrespectful.

Ms. Bey is not on trial here. Our city government is. That’s if we can really call it a government.

For it is hard to know which is the primary force here. Is it indifference, incompetence, arrogance or a mix of all three?

A year-and-a-half to compensate a homeowner for damage done by police who broke into her home? Really?

The city should reimburse Ms. Bey and do so now. City officials should make her whole and themselves humble.

The mayor should have seen to the repair himself.

He and the chief of police should have delivered the door personally and hung it themselves, or brought along a skilled laborer to complete the job.

And now they should present Ms. Bey with a check, take her to a really nice lunch, give her flowers, and thank her for not suing their pathetic hides.

People like Ms. Bey would matter in a decent, proper and well-managed city government.

The mayor ought to think less about bike lanes and more about the safety of ordinary citizens.

Instead of going to high-minded conferences and pronouncing on what he regards as issues of systemic and cosmic justice, he should address this one, small injustice — a botched home invasion that could have gone terribly wrong and significant property damage by city employees never undone.

The injustice is so small to Vivian Bey. And it would not seem small to any of us if it happened to us.