I fought the law, and the law won

The Clash has an amazing song and its something that has stuck with me, reminding me as I work on case after case as a Civil Rights Coordinator at CAIR-Greater Los Angeles that at the end of everything, the law does win.

I have never had a stronger sense of faith in the goodness of society, humans, but most of all in the laws that we create, mold and condition to rule over our day to day life.

While working for a personal injury firm, dealing with "cash" based cases I experienced the not-so-pleasant side of the law. For a person who finds empowerment, equity and education as critical values, the idea of personal injury law and evictions never settled well. Where as today, dealing with the Federal Employment Act, Constitutional issues like freedom of religion or search and seizure vibe well with the value chords inside me.

"I Fought the Law" was a bracing hybrid of outlaw romanticism, garage rock, surf music, Wall of Sound and British Invasion energy. To me the song signifies that coalescence of issues important to me and expressing the optimism- though the lyrics are pessimistic- that the law can win. It gives me promise that if you know the law, utilize it, have access to it, the law can work for you and help you.

The law works because of the faith society puts in it. The law can be manipulated, it could be from its inception designed to disenfranchise. Yet a working, governing model in which there is rule of law, allows for a formal challenge and redress of law, policy and interpretation.

I think of my work title- Civil Rights Coordinator- and it makes me snicker. I often ask myself "how can you coordinate civil rights" since the act of "coordinating" is "to give a common action, movement, or condition to; to regulate and combine so as to produce harmonious action; to adjust; to harmonize" according to the dictionary. So how does one coordinate civil rights?

Am I responsible for harmonizing the civil rights of individuals who feel their rights have been violated? Or maybe "giving common action"toward civil rights?

Its perplexing and titles make me wheezy anyway, how does one encompass all it is I do in one or two or a handful of words?

My job when it comes to the Civil Rights Department at CAIR, is to do intake, to evaluate/assess clients cases for straight forward civil rights issues as well as things pertaining to hate crime and hate incidents, then to offer that assessment in an actionable plan to the client- referring to attorney's, specialized organizations, or educating and empowering the client, or by offering things that I can assist them with in order to mediate, mitigate, resolve their claim.

Though in my position it is illegal for me to provide legal advise I find myself always challenged by this ethical constraint when I am asked to advise people on "the law". With each new case I experience the law and I live the law. I organize around the challenges of the law. I use the law to empower, to educate and to bring resolution to an inequity that arose. Experiencing this learning process it makes it tempting to "offer advise", yet each case is minisculy different and could mean a world of change in interpretation of the law, this keeps things in check for me.

Yet what I am learning is that knowing the law endows a person with confidence and that confidence is everything in the world when faced with a compromising position where the application of the law seems to have been violated. What I walk away with is that if you plan to fight the law anytime soon, make sure you know the law or some one who knows it far better then you.