Life-sized red silhouettes ornamented the Norman Train Depot lawn Wednesday in a chilling display designed to highlight the issue of domestic violence in Oklahoma.
"We're not doing so good," said Sunshine Gross, domestic violence and stalking coordinator for the Oklahoma Coalition against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
When brochures for the 2008 Silent Witness Initiative were printed, Oklahoma ranked 10th nationally for the number of females murdered by their intimate spouse, Gross said.
"Now we're fourth," she said.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every passersby was encouraged to read biographies on the silhouettes telling the stories of 200 men, women and children in the state of Oklahoma who have been murdered by a current or former intimate partner.
The victims range in age from 3 months to 77 years old.
Some were surprised to find the silhouettes of men among those in the exhibit. But for many, seeing the small, child-sized representations was most disturbing.
"It makes your heart hurt," Jenifer Halstead, 22, said.
The Oklahoma initiative is part of a national campaign developed by a group of artists and writers in Minnesota. In 1991, they created 27 red silhouettes, one for each domestic violence victim in the previous year, and marched into the Minnesota State Capitol with them, Gross said.
By 1997, when Oklahoma joined the initiative, 48 states had a Silent Witness campaign.
The Silent Witnesses travel around the state throughout the month of October designated Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“For a lot of people, if it doesn’t affect them personally, they don’t think it exists,” Gross said. “Each one of these represents a person in Oklahoma that actually lost their life to (domestic violence). I think this makes it real for a lot of people.”
Lori Anderson, an employee with the District Attorney's office said the exhibit achieved its intended purpose of raising awareness.
"You hear about it,” she said. “But reading this and seeing it, it makes it more in your face.”
Donnie Anderson, Chief Investigator for the District Attorney’s office, said the exhibit was a powerful reminder, although he was already aware of the issue.
"I've been in law enforcement for 18 years, and I've seen a lot of this," he said. "It's sad."
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