By Vanguard Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Washington man who played the Star Wars “Imperial March” behind National Guard troops patrolling city streets has filed a federal lawsuit after being detained and handcuffed by police during what he describes as a peaceful protest.
According to a complaint filed Oct. 23, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. is representing 35-year-old Sam O’Hara in a suit against the District of Columbia, four Metropolitan Police Department officers, and Sgt. Devon Beck of the Ohio National Guard. The complaint alleges violations of O’Hara’s First and Fourth Amendment rights, false arrest, and battery under D.C. law.
The lawsuit arises from an incident on Sept. 11, 2025, when O’Hara followed National Guard members deployed in the Logan Circle neighborhood and played The Imperial March — the musical theme associated with Darth Vader — from his phone. According to court documents, O’Hara was protesting the ongoing military presence in the city following President Trump’s August 2025 order to deploy National Guard troops to the nation’s capital to combat what he described as a “siege of violent crime.”
The complaint says O’Hara saw the deployment as an affront to democracy and a violation of the long-standing norm that U.S. troops not patrol civilian neighborhoods. “Given the roughly 200-year-old tradition of civilian law enforcement in the United States, Mr. O’Hara was deeply concerned about the normalization of troops patrolling D.C. neighborhoods,” the filing reads. “And so, he began protesting the Guard members’ presence by walking several feet behind them when he saw them in the community”.
O’Hara recorded the encounters and posted the videos on TikTok, where millions of viewers watched. Many commenters reportedly responded with amusement and shared the clips widely, while others used the videos to express concerns about the use of military personnel for civilian policing.
According to the complaint, Sgt. Beck reacted angrily to O’Hara’s protest, turning around and threatening to summon police. “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?” Beck allegedly said. O’Hara continued filming and playing the music. Beck then called police, who arrived minutes later and detained O’Hara.
Officer J.M. Campbell of the MPD approached O’Hara and told him, “That’s not a protest. You better define protest. This isn’t a protest. You are not protesting.” O’Hara, the complaint states, was standing several feet away, playing music and recording. He was handcuffed by Officer Edward Reyes-Benigno and accused of “harassing the National Guard,” despite not speaking to or obstructing the troops in any way.
The lawsuit claims O’Hara was detained for about 20 minutes and experienced pain from overly tight handcuffs that left visible marks. He was later released without charges. The complaint says the officers’ conduct caused O’Hara “significant anxiety around law enforcement” and aggravated a preexisting shoulder injury.
“The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the ACLU wrote in the complaint, “but in the here and now, the First Amendment bars government officials from shutting down peaceful protests.”
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for violations of O’Hara’s constitutional rights and for false imprisonment and battery. It argues that O’Hara’s peaceful musical protest — a form of satire — is protected speech under the First Amendment, and that his detention lacked any probable cause or reasonable suspicion.
Michael Perloff, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of D.C., is representing O’Hara along with ACLU legal director Scott Michelman. The case is captioned O’Hara v. Beck.
The ACLU said in the filing that O’Hara brought the lawsuit “to ensure accountability, secure compensation for his injuries, and vindicate core constitutional guarantees.”
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