LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California together with the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Progressive Jewish Alliance, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have announced the creation of a hotline for Iraqi-Americans seeking legal assistance with FBI interviews. The U.S. government has announced that they are seeking to interview over 10,000 Iraqis throughout the nation in an effort to gather information related to the Iraq conflict.

In the past, interviews conducted by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have stirred unrest and fear among the Middle-Eastern communities. Complaints of harassment and improper or intrusive questions were commonplace.

"In setting up this hotline, the ACLU is continuing in its long tradition of helping those who need assistance during times of great national crisis," said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. "We want to make sure that people in the targeted communities are aware of the fact that they are entitled to have an attorney present during questioning. Together with volunteer attorneys we will work to make sure that those seeking legal assistance will not be left out in the cold."

Preliminary reports of the interviews currently taking place range from pleasant or courteous to rude and intimidating. Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations have repeatedly called on law enforcement officials to respect interview subjects' rights and refrain from treating the communities as suspects rather than partners in the war on terrorism.

"Guaranteeing and respecting the rights of those questioned, in keeping with constitutional standards, will help to enhance cooperation between American-Muslims and law enforcement," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

"We have to work to ensure that all Americans remain safe and secure, both in terms of physical safety, and also in terms of safeguarding our civil rights and civil liberties," said Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance. "This is not a Muslim issue, a Jewish issue or an Arab issue, this is an American issue."

"We understand the governments' concern for public safety in this time of war, and also the American Muslim community's concerns about their civil rights," said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California. "This hotline provides the necessary protections to allow people to feel secure in the conversations with law enforcement agencies."

The hotline will provide callers with legal assistance including attorney referrals and general legal advice. The Southern California hotline number is: 213/977-5289.

LOS ANGELES - In one of the first challenges to LAPD Chief William Bratton's "broken windows" policy, the ACL Union and the National Lawyers Guild filed a lawsuit in federal court today challenging the legality of the so-called "probation sweeps" that have been implemented in the skid row area.

The suit contends that the LAPD "adopted and pursued an unlawful policy, practice and custom of harassment" against the residents of the Central City East area, including the homeless in the area and residents of skid row's Single Room Occupancy (SRO) housing units.

"The police have been conducting these raids under the pretext that they are looking for parole violators and absconders," said Carol Sobel, an attorney representing the National Lawyers Guild in the case. "The fact is these raids are a concerted effort to harass, intimidate and threaten a vulnerable class of people in the downtown area. To say that only parole violators have been targeted flies in the face of facts and experiences recounted by area residents, some of whose rights were violated simply for walking down the street at the wrong time."

In late November of 2002, the LAPD began a series of "probation sweeps" in the skid row area. The purpose of the sweeps was to arrest purported parole and probation violators said to be living among the residents of skid row. Over 250 LAPD officers took part in the sweeps, together with officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, the California Highway Patrol, County Probation and parole agents from the California Department of Corrections. Law enforcement officials swept through the area, raiding low-income hotels or SROs, and stopping people randomly on the streets and sidewalks of the neighborhood. In many cases, residents were subject to unlawful searches and seizures.

"I was in my room and the next thing I knew there were about fifteen police officers outside my door," said Donald Fitzgerald, resident of the Simone Hotel, an area SRO. "The police came in and just started searching my room, asking me what the conditions of my parole were."

Upon searching his room, officers found eating utensils including a fork and knife. Mr. Fitzgerald was informed that the possession of the knife was a violation of his parole. He was taken into custody on an alleged violation of his parole for possession of the eating utensil. He was held for a total of six days, though no charges were ever filed against him for any crime or violation of the terms and conditions of his parole. As a result of his detention and missing work, he was fired from his job as a grounds maintenance person.

"This is just amazing," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney with the ACLU of Southern California. "Chief Bratton has to realize that these people have a right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures just the same as anyone else. It makes no difference if you live in a fancy Los Feliz home, like Chief Bratton, or in a $260 dollar a month hotel on skid row. You don't waive your Fourth Amendment right because you live in an SRO."

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has announced the settlement of a lawsuit alleging inadequate mental health services for dependent children in Los Angeles County's child-welfare system.

A coalition of public interest groups originally filed the suit in July 2002. They included the Western Center on Law and Poverty, Center for Law In the Public Interest, the Bazalon Center for Mental Health Law, the Youth Law Center, Protection & Advocacy, Inc., the law firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

The suit sought to ensure delivery of appropriate mental health services for children currently under, or at risk of being placed under, the jurisdiction of the County's Department of Children and Family Services. Nationwide, an estimated 60-85 percent of children in foster care have significant mental health problems.

"Looking ahead, we hope that every single child who ever finds himself in a position to be a client of Los Angeles County will be benefitted by this agreement," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

"The overarching philosophy of this agreement may be simply stated: the role of the government is to preserve families, not replace them; that children belong in families, not institutions," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director with the ACLU of Southern California. "This agreement was reached in the spirit of holding hands, not pointing fingers."

"This agreement is simply the beginning," said Miriam Krinsky, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles. "We all now need to work together to secure a similar positive commitment from our State."

The State of California, also named as a defendant in the suit, has not settled with the plaintiffs.

"This was really an example of the different parties coming together to do what was best for the children in the system," said Robert Newman, staff attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "Almost immediately after the suit was filed, the County came to the negotiation table eager to work something out rather than dragging it out in litigation. Everyone involved recognized that this was an important chance to make a change in the lives of the thousands of foster children in Los Angeles."

The settlement outlines a set of objectives that the County has agreed to meet on behalf of the roughly 50,000 foster children in it's care, including:

Promptly administering individualized mental health services to foster children in either their own home, a family setting or the most homelike setting appropriate to their needs;

Striving to provide stability in the placement of foster children, whenever possible, since multiple placements are harmful to children and disruptive of family contact, mental health treatment and the provision of other critical services;

Ensuring that the care and services foster children receive are consistent with good child welfare and mental health practice and requirements of federal and state law.

In order to fulfill the objectives outlined in the settlement, the County will agree to:

-- Expand intensive, family-based "Wraparound Services" that utilize flexible funding to meet the individual needs of children and families;

-- Enhance permanency planning, increase placement stability and provide more individualized, community-based emergency and other foster care services;

-- Surrender its license for MacLaren Children's Center and will no longer operate the facility for the residential care of children and youth under the age of eighteen;

-- Immediately address the service and permanence needs of the five plaintiffs named in the lawsuit.

Also as part of the settlement, an Advisory Panel of experts in the child welfare field will monitor the County's compliance and implementation of reforms.

"The expert panel's role is to ensure that children will be afforded placement stability to provide the opportunity to form real emotional attachments that all children need, and to avoid being bounced from one inappropriate placement to another," said Lin Min King, staff attorney at the Center for Law In the Public Interest. "MacLaren Children's Center, a shelter that has been used to warehouse children for years, has been closed as a result of this lawsuit. But more importantly, children with emotional and behavioral impairments will be provided services early on to reduce the time they are in foster care, and more individualized, community-based emergency services will be made available to children."

"This settlement exemplifies how dedicated advocates and responsible public officials can--but all too often don't--form a partnership for needed system reform," said Ira Burnim, legal director with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. "Its successful implementation will transform a system that has turned a blind eye to thousands of children with disabilities into one that offers these youngsters the help they need to live with their families, stay in school and have the opportunity to grow up as healthy and independent adults."