Her name and that of the congressman were on everybody's lips. Sex, secrecy and the likelihood of foul play were all part of the drama. But, hey, that's what it was all about, wasn't it? Levy, the California college graduate and intern, and Rep. Gary Condit: a fascinating story of other people's troubles.

In time, we now tell ourselves, it will all fade away. Another Washington tale of infatuation, lust, power and the inevitable fall.

Pure garbage.

What happened to Chandra Levy is not about the tribulations of a white middle-class kid from way out West who, in some strange twist of fate, ran into harm's way while interning in the nation's capital. Chandra Levy's story is an older and more familiar one. And it is a reality that we would just as soon pretend does not exist.

At bottom, it's about violence against women. The crime scene in Rock Creek Park is not the last word on that evil - not in this city anyway.

Forget all that talk about this being a new day for women, that in 2002 women in the District of Columbia are no longer treated differently or looked down upon because of their sex. Don't believe for one second that the era of abusive partners working overtime on the minds - and bodies - of women is over.

Or that our city has been transformed by law, by the teachings of the home and by the words of our exalted civic and religious leadership to the point that some women no longer need to walk on eggshells behind closed doors in fear of getting put down, slapped around or threatened in some despicable way.

That, my friends, is pure, unadulterated hogwash, at least in this town of ours.

Here's a little something that they'll never tell you downtown, something that you'll never hear intoned from the pulpit, where women are unctuously lifted up as creatures unspotted by the world.

Guess how many reports of violence against women were made to the D.C. police in 2000. I'm talking about domestic violence, sexual assaults, desperate calls for civil protection orders. Ready? More than 22,500.

That's right. Violence against women made up about 50 percent of all reported violent crimes to the D.C. police in that year. If those numbers take your breath away, they should. Because the reported incidents are only the tip of the iceberg.

Most abuse occurs behind closed doors, where the abused don't have anyone to help them. Behind closed doors, where they are dependent upon the person who's whipping up on them or forcing them to do things that they ought not have to do.

Most of our abused friends and neighbors suffer in silence, ashamed and scared, hanging in there out of fear of breaking up the family or of getting their own heads broken.

Some of them also believe deep down inside that no one's going to believe them anyway.

And why shouldn't they?

Even when they call for help, the cops often show up but don't make reports.

A special order was put on the books in April 2000 requiring reports on sexual assaults. It might as well have been written in Sanskrit. In that year, 571 calls, or 51 percent, were not written up by police, according to an internal Metropolitan Police Department report. The same noncompliance applies to other domestic violence reporting.

Despite a general order demanding a report on every domestic violence calls, most responses to calls simply don't get documented by police. In 2000, in approximately 66 percent of police responses, not one report was made, according to a June 2001 report sponsored by the D.C. police's Family Violence Prevention Unit, (which is now defunct).

It gets worse.

Say a woman who has been beaten - who's been kept away from her family and friends and made to feel like dirt all the time - finally screws up her nerve, leaves that turkey and gets a civil protection order. So what? It's a hope and a prayer that the order ever gets served.

In December 2000, only 55 percent of civil protection orders were served. In January 2001, the number slipped to 47 percent. In March 2001, the last month for which data are available, the court had managed to serve only 69 percent. Why? Wrong addresses, lack of staff - you name it. Bottom line: The offenders weren't served. They were free to keep choking and kicking and browbeating.

And they kept at it to a fare-thee-well, too.

There are more than 800 addresses in this city that the police had to visit six or more times in 2000, responding to violence-against-women calls. That equates to about 5,000 responses to those locations. What did they do when they got there? Check this out:

From a dwelling in the 5400 block of 5th Street NW: 17 calls - and only two reports.

A household in the 100 block of Kennedy Street NW: 13 calls - not a single report.

A household in the 1800 block of Wiltberger Street NW: 7 calls - not a single report.

In an apartment building in the 3700 block of 9th Street SE there were 47 calls from at least 19 different apartments - and only 12 reports.

Likewise, there were 27 calls from at least eight different apartments in a building in the 200 block of N Street SW - and only four reports.

Even then, some of the reports were sloppy, contained inaccurate or illegible information, lacked victim contact information, or the contact number was no longer in service.

This helps explain why, of the more than 6,000 domestic violence reports submitted to the U.S. attorney's office in 2000, prosecutors refused to pursue, or "no papered," approximately 2,000. Bottom line: Less than 10 percent of calls for domestic violence in the District result in a conviction.

Oh, yes. All the organizational rigamarole to handle violence against women is neatly in place. Laws, regulations and directives galore have been written. Folks with appropriate titles within the bureaucracy have been designated to deal with the problem. When it comes to talking a good game, the D.C. government has no peer. But those aren't the standards by which this city should be judged.

Count the victims. Count the homes that have been violated. Count the trusted relationships broken. Count the children who have seen the slapping and biting and kicking and cursing and who are more likely to grow up and do the same damn thing.

Count the police officers who have said, as one domestic crime victim reports: "There are too many real crimes being committed to be dealing with stuff like this."

Now face the truth about violence against women in our city: It's bigger than Chandra Levy.