A Washington, D.C. man is suing police, a National Guard member, and the district itself, claiming his constitutional rights were violated after being detained last month for trailing a National Guard patrol while playing Darth Vader’s theme from the Star Wars franchise.
Sam O’Hara, 35, represented by an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against four D.C. police officers, an Ohio National Guard member, and the District of Columbia itself.
“The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the suit states, quoting Star Wars. “But in the here and now, the First Amendment bars government officials from shutting down peaceful protests, and the Fourth Amendment (along with the District’s prohibition on false arrest) bars groundless seizures.”
O’Hara claims to have been peacefully protesting the federal troops’ deployment by trailing behind them while playing “The Imperial March,” the orchestral piece associated with Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, from his phone or small speaker,
O’Hara has shared more than 20 clips of him playing the track in the nation’s capital on TikTok, amassing 1 million likes, with the most recent video uploaded on Tuesday.
The lawsuit says O’Hara had previously held other Star Wars-themed protests against National Guard deployments, and that troops usually ignored him.
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However, on September 11, as O’Hara followed four Ohio Guard members, one of them, named as Devon Beck, called the police.
Beck allegedly said to O’Hara before being detained, “Hey, man, if you’re going to keep following us, we can contact Metro PD and they can come handle you if that’s what you want to do. Is that what you want to do?”
O’Hara claims he did not respond, but continued playing the song and recording the interaction. Several police cars “arrived within minutes” of Beck’s call, and O’Hara was then placed in handcuffs, which he says stopped him from continuing his peaceful protest.
O’Hara’s lawsuit asks the court to find that his detention violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights and constituted false arrest, imprisonment, and battery under D.C. law, while also seeking compensatory damages.
The Metropolitan Police Department told The Independent that it does not comment on pending litigation when contacted on Thursday. The Independent also contacted representatives for the National Guard for comment.
Speaking to the Washington Post on Wednesday, O’Hara said he wanted to be clear that his TikToks are not intended to mock the National Guard troops.
“I think the men and women who signed up to serve their country did not have this in mind, that they would be policing their fellow citizens,” O’Hara told the outlet.
“My protest is to make sure that everyone knows that this is coming from the top. These orders are coming from an administration that seeks to use fear and tactics to make sure their power extends to branches of government where it doesn’t belong,” he said.
President Donald Trump declared a “crime emergency” on August 11, federalized DC law enforcement, and deployed National Guard troops to patrol the city, which was widely condemned by local leaders and opposed by about 80 percent of residents, a Washington Post-Schar School poll found.
