Screenshots via @freedc20009 on TikTok.
The American Civil Liberties Union says The Force, errr, First Amendment is with Sam O’Hara, filing a lawsuit on his behalf after he was handcuffed and detained after following National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. playing the Darth Vader theme from the Star Wars film franchise.
President Donald Trump has deployed National Guard troops and sent ICE agents into multiple U.S. cities during this first year of his second term, claiming it is necessary to combat crime and illegal immigration.
The interference from the feds has invoked strong objections from many of the political leaders and local residents of these areas, with multiple lawsuits filed by elected officials and numerous protests — leading to an additional round of lawsuits as protesters argue the federal government is violating their free speech rights.
O’Hara’s TikTok account, @freedc20009, features dozens of videos of him walking behind or standing near National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., using his phone or a small Bluetooth speaker to play “The Imperial March,” John Williams’ famous musical theme that accompanied the appearance of Darth Vader in Star Wars films beginning with The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Featured prominently in key plot points throughout the various sequels and prequels in the franchise, “The Imperial March” has been used for years in politically-themed videos and protests to oppose oppressive authoritarian regimes.
The videos posted by O’Hara mostly show the troops ignoring him, and in some cases, even appearing to enjoy the cinematic soundtrack he was providing for their deployment. In the below clips, one Guard member is seen smiling and another is bopping his head along to Williams’ infectious melodies.
@freedc20009 #freedc ♬ original sound – freedc20009
@freedc20009 #freedc ♬ original sound – freedc20009
Most of the time, O’Hara is ignored by the National Guard troops. In the below post, two Guard members don’t interact with him but do seem to be marching in beat with the music at the beginning of the clip:
@freedc20009 #freedc ♬ original sound – freedc20009
In less than two months, O’Hara has built up a sizable following and racked up millions of views for his posts; a post from August has over 4.4 million views alone.
But even Jedi mind tricks couldn’t protect O’Hara from unamused government agents.
According to the complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, on September 11, O’Hara saw several National Guard members in D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood and ” stood several feet behind [them], began playing ‘The Imperial March’—the song that announces Darth Vader—aloud on his phone, and started recording.”
“Ohio National Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck was not amused by this satire,” the complaint states, and after “less than two minutes” of O’Hara’s musical protest, Beck “turned around and threatened to call the police officers to ‘handle’ Mr. O’Hara if he did not stop.”
O’Hara kept playing the song, and Beck called the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, who arrived on the scene. The MPD officers accused O’Hara of “harassing” and “assaulting” the Guard members; he denied these accusations and insisted he was peacefully protesting by standing on the sidewalk and playing music on his phone. The MPD officers “tightly handcuffed and detained Mr. O’Hara for between 15 and 20 minutes,” the complaint states.
The complaint further alleges that O’Hara “complained about the tightness of the handcuffs,” one MPD officer “jerked Mr. O’Hara’s arms while he was handcuffing him,” which was painful because of two shoulder surgeries in 2023, and none of the officers did anything to loosen the handcuffs or otherwise alleviate O’Hara’s discomfort, continuing to detain him until he was eventually released without charges.
O’Hara’s attorneys point out in the complaint that their client played the music “at a volume that was audible but not blaring,” “did not speak with the Guard members he trailed,” “did not touch Guard members or interfere in their operations,” ” walked behind the Guard members for only a few minutes,” and “initiated his protests only when he saw Guard members engaged in operations consisting entirely of walking on patrol, as opposed to incidents where Guard members were actively involved in supporting law enforcement.”
The lawsuit names as defendants Beck, four officers with the MPD, and the District of Columbia, and lists five counts: two for violations of his First Amendment rights (suppression of speech and retaliation), one count for violation of his Fourth Amendment rights (unreasonable seizure, unreasonably prolonged seizure, excessive force), and two counts under D.C. law for false arrest/false imprisonment and battery. O’Hara is seeking a ruling that the defendants violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights and violated D.C. law, as well as compensatory damages, punitive damages, and costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
“Armed National Guard should not be policing D.C. residents as we walk around our neighborhoods,” said O’Hara in a statement released by the ACLU. “It was important to me not to normalize this dystopian occupation. Instead of respecting my right to protest, police officers handcuffed me so tightly my wrists were still marked and sore the next day. This shows the danger of deploying troops onto American streets: it puts all our basic rights at risk.”
“The government doesn’t get to decide if your protest is funny, and government officials can’t punish you for making them the punchline,” said Michael Perloff, senior staff attorney at ACLU-D.C. “That’s really the whole point of the First Amendment.”
First Amendment experts assessed O’Hara as having a strong case.
“It’s clear as a matter of law that government officials cannot retaliate against people just because they’re angry about their speech,” Robert McNamara, deputy litigation director at the Institute for Justice, told Mediaite. “It’s also clear as a matter of fact that government officials love nothing more than retaliating against people just because they’re angry about their speech — by arresting them, impounding their vehicles, or worse. That’s why it’s vitally important for courts to hold the government accountable for First Amendment violations like these.”
“How sad that what was intended as a satirical, humorous reference to fictional authoritarian forces led to the all-too-real and not at all funny imposition of actual authoritarian force,” New York Law School professor emerita Nadine Strossen told Mediaite.
Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), cited another beloved film to criticize O’Hara’s arrest.
“Playing music that may be annoying to National Guard troops is not a crime, and arresting someone for playing the music and for recording the scene violates the First Amendment,” said Corn-Revere. “Even the Nazis in the movie Casablanca did not believe they could arrest patrons of Rick’s Cafe for singing the French national anthem. Something has gone terribly wrong here.”
“[R]ecording and mocking law enforcement are both firmly protected by the First Amendment, as long as one doesn’t interfere with their duties,” wrote Reason criminal justice reporter C.J. Ciaramella:
Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. wrote in 1987, in a ruling striking down a Houston ordinance that made it unlawful to oppose or interrupt a police officer, that “the freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state.”
To put it another way, if you act like an autocratic villain when someone compares you to an autocratic villain, you just might be an autocratic villain.
Mediaite has contacted the Ohio National Guard for comment and has not yet received a reply. D.C. Metropolitan Police declined to comment — citing a policy not to comment on pending litigation.
This article has been updated with additional information.
The post ACLU Sues After Protester Detained and Handcuffed for Playing Darth Vader Theme at National Guard in Viral TikTok Clips first appeared on Mediaite.
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