The Iranian American Lawyers Association (IALA), the first association of Iranian American lawyers in the U.S. established in 1994, was invited to speak at the California Association of Human Rights Organization’s annual conference in Sacramento on January 7, 2008.

P. Patrick Ashouri IALA’s former president (2004 & 2006), current director and in charge of the association’s public relation affairs, attended the conference. Other Panelists at the “Strengthening Police/Community Relations” portion of the conference, were Lt. Douglas Miller of Los Angeles Police Department, Tene Carr of the Los Angeles Office of the FBI, Dafer Dakhil the Director of the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation in Los Angeles and a member of the Los Angeles Office of the FBI Multi Cultural Advisory Committee (MCAC).

In a short presentation Mr. Ashouri recited the evolution of MCAC, its creation back in 2004 out of growing concerns of the Iranian American Community in Los Angeles and the FBI, the association’s role in advocating for Civil Rights and Liberties as well as unconditional access to counsel in voluntary interviews by any law enforcement agencies.

He explained “ as a lawyers association, our role is one of advocacy but in this case we determined that having any dialogue with law enforcement is better than having none when it relates to Civil Rights and liberties and access to counsel.”

Dafer Dakhil explained examples of how a dialogue with the FBI has helped and assisted the Community in Southern California and Lt. Miller explained the facts and circumstances and lessons learned from the Macarthur Park incident in Los Angles in 2007.