Lambert

concurring in the judgment.

I agree with much of the majority’s analysis, but cannot join the opinion’s sociological disquisition on the racial prejudices of police officers. Although the events catalogued in the opinion, see, e.g., op. at 1182-83 n. 1, are highly troubling, they are not part of the record in this case. Defendants were not sued because of all the sins and crimes committed by all law enforcement officers against all people of color, though surely there have been many. Defendants were accused of a specific constitutional violation, which was amply proven. As the majority notes, the facts were egregious; we need make no reference to any other cases or circumstances to conclude that the conduct of the police here fell shockingly below the standards of decency in a civilized society. By straining so mightily to reach its conclusion, the majority gives the impression that this is a hard case. The only hard thing about it is figuring out why defendants— having been hit with surprisingly modest damages — chose to appeal.

In this case we apply the Fourth Amendment’s promise of security in one’s being to what is, unfortunately, an all too familiar set of circumstances- — an intrusive law enforcement stop and seizure of innocent persons on the basis of suspicions rooted principally in the race of “the suspects.” 1 On June 25, *1183 1991, several Santa Monica police officers in police cruisers, including appellant, Skystone Lambert, followed George Washington and Darryl Hicks, two African-American men, as they drove into the parking garage of their hotel. The police shone searchlights on their car, ordered them out at gunpoint, handcuffed their hands behind their backs and placed them in separate police cars for a period of from five to 25 minutes. 2 Only after the officers frisked the two men, searched their car and checked their identification did they release “the suspects.”

Asserting that their Fourth Amendment rights had been violated, Washington and Hicks filed suit under, inter alia, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . The district court granted them judgment as a matter of law after denying Lambert’s pre-trial and trial motions for judgment on the basis of qualified immunity.

The defendant justifies his…