DC man who followed troops around playing Darth Vader theme sues over his arrest
Source: The Independent
Thursday 23 October 2025 16:27 EDT
A Washington, D.C. man is suing police, a National Guard member, and the district itself, claiming his constitutional rights were violated after being detained last month for trailing a National Guard patrol while playing Darth Vader’s theme from the Star Wars franchise.
Sam O’Hara, 35, represented by an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against four D.C. police officers, an Ohio National Guard member, and the District of Columbia itself.
“The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the suit states, quoting Star Wars. “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.”
O’Hara claims to have been peacefully protesting the federal troops’ deployment by trailing behind them while playing “The Imperial March,” the orchestral piece associated with Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, from his phone or small speaker,
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/washington-dc-man-sues-troops-star-wars-b2851167.html
Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://www.acludc.org/app/uploads/2025/10/20251023-OHARA-COMPL-FILED.pdf
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Guerrilla theatre,[1][2] generally rendered "guerrilla theater" in the US, is a form of guerrilla communication originated in 1965 by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, who, in spirit of the Che Guevara writings from which the term guerrilla is taken, engaged in performances in public places committed to "revolutionary sociopolitical change."[2] The group performances, aimed against the Vietnam War and capitalism, sometimes contained nudity, profanity and taboo subjects that were shocking to some members of the audiences of the time.[2]
Guerrilla (Spanish for "little war"
, as applied to theatrical events, describes the act of spontaneous, surprise performances in unlikely public spaces to an unsuspecting audience. Typically these performances intend to draw attention to a political/social issue through satire, protest, and carnivalesque techniques. Many of these performances were a direct result of the radical social movements of the late 1960s through mid-1970s.[3] Guerrilla Theater, also referred to as guerrilla performance, has been sometimes related to the agitprop theater of the 1930s,[4] but it is differentiated from agitprop by the inclusion of Dada performance tactics.[citation needed]