violence from coast to coast

california:

Slain actress found 'dark side' of hollywood dream (ya think?)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/17/grace.coldcase.redding/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

new york:

woman decapitated by husband while on the phone with her sister
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/17/new.york.beheading/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

and, because the media frenzy hasn't really died down, and i keep hoping that rihanna will be able to use her terrible experience to help other women like her:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/02/18/steiner.violence/

i don't think there's a lot of what that author writes about that i would really identify with (it's mostly mommy-related content), but these few paragraphs made me like her- she was brave and she didn't turn away and ignore the violence she witnessed:


A few months after I left my marriage, I happened across another couple in another car, late at night on an empty street. I slowed down as a well-dressed woman about 25 years old was walking away from a white Honda, brushing off a tall, handsome young man wearing a sports coat and jeans.

Suddenly she turned and tried to run. He grabbed her with his long arms and shoved her up against a dirty storefront. Even from my car I could see the fear on her pretty face.

Without thinking, I jerked my car over and got out. By this time the man had let the woman go and she'd slid behind the wheel of the car. He stepped back as I approached, his anger displaced by uncertainty and shame at being interrupted. I didn't look at him. I leaned into the car as she sat clutching the wheel, crying and staring straight ahead.

"I just left a husband who beat me for three years," I said. "You do not have to put up with this. You do not deserve to be treated like this."

"I know," she whispered as fresh tears poured down her face. She sniffed loudly and shook her head. She wouldn't look at me. Her eyes were rimmed red, but I could see resolve in them.

"You're right," she said. "It's just taking me longer than I thought."

As I left, I gave the man a long stare. The spell had been broken and his face was open, sorrowful, filled with hope and fear -- a look I had seen dozens of times on my husband's face. How long would that look last before he got angry again? I could feel the woman's determination as I got back into my car. I knew she would be all right, one day. The man, I was less certain about.