This Is Not the Lawsuit You’re Looking For: DC Man Suing Police After He Was Detained for Playing “Imperial March”

Protests have broken out across the country against Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in American cities and ICE raids nationwide, culminating with last weekend’s “No Kings” protest, which drew an estimated seven million protestors. While most protests have been serious against perceived injustices, some protestors have taken a different tack.

Protestors in Portland, Oregon, have started dressing in inflatable animal costumes and dancing in front of ICE facilities. One protestor in Washington, D.C. decided that his act of civil disobedience needed to come from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

Sam O’Hara began following around the National Guard deployed in the Nation’s Capital and playing the “Imperial March,” A.K.A. Darth Vader’s theme song, as they moved around the city. However, while some of the National Guardsmen in D.C. found O’Hara to be amusing, some of the National Guard members did not think it was funny at all, and O’Hara paid the price for it.

The Ohio National Guardsman told O’Hara to stop and threatened to call the Metropolitan Police Department on him. The Guardsman flagged the police down, and O’Hara was handcuffed and detained by the police.

This week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against four Metropolitan Police Department officers and a member of the Ohio National Guard seeking damages for alleged First and Fourth Amendment violations, false arrest/imprisonment, and battery.

“The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the ACLU attorneys said in the suit. “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.”

According to the lawsuit, O’Hara was detained by police for “15-20 minutes” and then released without charges. The MPD and Ohio National Guard did not comment on the lawsuit.

O’Hara posted the video of himself playing the “Imperial March” on TikTok, and it received more than one million views. Who knew that the National Guardmen weren’t Star Wars fans?

What do you think of a protester being detained for playing the “Imperial March”? Let us know in the comments.