Lungren Tours Battered-Women’s Shelter : Abuse: At UCI, attorney general links domestic assaults to acceptance of violence in entertainment and complacency toward the dehumanization of women in music videos.

Laura, 27, came to the Second Step Shelter for battered women in July to get herself and her two children, ages 3 and 8, away from her husband.

During the couple’s courtship, there were no signs of the abuse that was to come. His pushing and shoving didn’t start until after they were married. Then came the times when he would lock them out of their house, forcing Laura and the children to spend the night in their car.

Eventually, she left. “I was living in cars, motel rooms,” Laura said. “I was running from him every chance I could get.”

With no place left to go, she turned to Human Options, a nonprofit group that helps battered women. She told her story Thursday to a group of people that included Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, who gathered in the living room of her two-bedroom apartment in the shelter.

Lungren was in Orange County to address Human Options, tour Second Step and talk to women like Laura, who have restraining orders against their husbands to keep them away.

“How do your children like it here,” Lungren asked before peering into the bedroom of Laura’s 8-year-old daughter, which is filled with Barbie dolls, seashells and a rock collection.

“They just love it,” Laura replied.

The tour came a day after State Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) announced that he is exploring the possibility of challenging Lungren for his post next year. Lungren limited his remarks Thursday to the issue of battered women, except to say he would be ready to face any challengers.

“We are perfectly willing to take on whoever emerges from the battle,” Lungren said referring to the June Democratic primary in which Umberg would square off against San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith, who has already announced his intentions to run. “I never underestimate an opponent.”

In his speech to Human Options Professional Support Group, an organization of professional men and women dedicated to providing financial support for the shelter, Lungren warned the audience against accepting violence in society.

Pointing the finger at MTV, video games and even professional football, he said that it is up to the public to change the standards of violence it currently accepts.

“What are we doing when the finest word to describe a woman in some music lyrics is ‘whore’ and that is accepted?” Lungren asked. “In some way or another we have all bought into this violence.”

Dehumanizing women in music videos is just one factor that can lead to domestic violence, one of the most serious and deadly crimes in the state, Lungren said, adding that the number of calls to abuse hot lines continues to increase. More than 14,000 were made last year.

Lungren applauded Human Options for trying to break the cycle. Second Step, which opened this year, is housed in a building purchased by the organization for $1.3 million last February. Laura is one of 28 women and children living at the 16-unit apartment complex nestled in a central Orange County neighborhood.

The shelter goes one step beyond the crisis care offered in traditional shelters, offering women a year of counseling and job-placement services, along with the chance to get their lives together. The women who live there must pay one-third of their incomes toward rent.

“We aren’t there holding their hands,” said Jerilyn Rimel of Human Options. “We are weaning them toward independence and self-sufficiency.”

Laura is hoping to get vocational training and become a medical assistant. While she waits for word on funding for her education, she makes money by baby-sitting other women’s children.

She is also receiving counseling, and is slowly learning to feel more comfortable about talking about her abuse.

Telling Lungren her story was an accomplishment she said she was proud of. “I am pretty confident I will do OK,” she said after the attorney general left. “We are safe. No one can hurt us here.”