The lawsuit has Star Wars jokes, of course.
A Washington D.C. man was arrested last month for following National Guard troops around while playing “The Imperial March,” Darth Vader’s theme song in the Star Wars films. But now that man is suing, with the help of the ACLU, because he says his First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated while he engaged in peaceful protest.
Sam O’Hara, 35, was walking in the Logan Circle neighborhood of D.C. on Sept. 11 when he spotted National Guard troops patrolling the area. O’Hara started playing “The Imperial March” from his phone while walking behind them and started filming it for his TikTok account. But “in less than two minutes,” according to the lawsuit, Ohio National Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck turned around and threatened to call the local cops to “handle” him if O’Hara didn’t stop.
O’Hara didn’t stop, so that’s what Beck did. He called the Metropolitan Police Department, who came and put O’Hara in handcuffs. He remained “tightly handcuffed” for about 15-20 minutes, according to the suit.
The four 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 help from the DC chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
