DC Man Sues Over His Arrest for Enjoying Darth Vader Music at Nationwide Guard

A Washington D.C. man was arrested final month for following Nationwide Guard troops round whereas taking part in “The Imperial March,” Darth Vader’s theme tune within the Star Wars movies. However now that man is suing, with the assistance of the ACLU, as a result of he says his First and Fourth Modification rights had been violated whereas he engaged in peaceable protest.

Sam O’Hara, 35, was strolling within the Logan Circle neighborhood of D.C. on Sept. 11 when he noticed Nationwide Guard troops patrolling the world. O’Hara began taking part in “The Imperial March” from his cellphone whereas strolling behind them and began filming it for his TikTok account. However “in lower than two minutes,” in keeping with the lawsuit, Ohio Nationwide Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck rotated and threatened to name the native cops to “deal with” him if O’Hara didn’t cease.

O’Hara didn’t cease, in order that’s what Beck did. He referred to as the Metropolitan Police Division, who got here and put O’Hara in handcuffs. He remained “tightly handcuffed” for about 15-20 minutes, in keeping with the swimsuit.

The 4 MPD officers who made the arrest, Tiffany Brown, JM Campbell, Edward Reyes-Benigno, and Alfonso Lopez Martinez, are all named in the lawsuit, which was filed with assist from the DC chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

O’Hara has “skilled important anxiousness round legislation enforcement and feels much less secure in his neighborhood,” in keeping with the swimsuit, and the “overly tight handcuffs” reportedly left marks on his wrists. He additionally had ache in his arms and shoulders the subsequent morning, in keeping with the swimsuit. O’Hara has had two surgical procedures on his left shoulder since 2023.

The swimsuit consists of some jokes about Star Wars, which was in all probability to be anticipated:

The legislation may need tolerated authorities conduct of this type a very long time in the past in a galaxy far, distant. However within the right here and now, the First Modification bars authorities officers from shutting down peaceable protests, and the Fourth Modification (together with the District’s prohibition on false arrest) bars groundless seizures.

President Donald Trump has despatched a surge of federal brokers to cities that he considers to be Democratic and has seen combined success sending Nationwide Guard troops to cities like Portland and Chicago. Judges have flip flopped on whether or not Trump is allowed to do this, with some discovering that he can with others discovering he can’t because the instances make their means up the ladder to greater courts. As of this writing, Trump has not been allowed to deploy troops to Portland and Chicago.

However there’s little or no query that Trump has the flexibility to deploy the Nationwide Guard to Washington D.C. as a result of it’s not a state. The president has unbelievable powers to do many issues in D.C. that he actually can’t do elsewhere. However the free speech protections of the First Modification, in addition to the protections from unreasonable search and seizure within the Fourth Modification, nonetheless apply to the complete nation—even in D.C.

Curiously, when Gizmodo went to search out the movies that O’Hara has posted to TikTok so as to embed them on this submit, we discovered that the video from Sept. 11 had been slapped with the warning: “This submit will not be comfy for some audiences. Log in to take advantage of your expertise.”

There’s nothing graphic in regards to the video and it’s unclear why TikTok wouldn’t enable the video to be embedded, however the native TV information outlet WUSA9 has a video that additionally reveals you what occurred, together with O’Hara’s arrest.