Washington DC Resident Sues After National Guard Arrest Over 'Imperial March' Protest

Sam O'Hara, a Washington D.C. resident, has filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia, the Ohio National Guard, and several police officers after being detained for peacefully protesting the deployment of National Guard troops in the city. O'Hara's protest involved following National Guard patrols while playing the "Imperial March," Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars, as a symbolic critique of the Trump administration's decision to flood D.C. neighborhoods with these troops. Despite his nonviolent conduct, O'Hara was threatened by an Ohio National Guard sergeant who called the police, leading to O'Hara's handcuffing and detention by Metropolitan Police officers. The lawsuit, supported by the ACLU, argues that O'Hara's First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated, emphasizing that peaceful protest and protection against false arrest are constitutionally guaranteed. This incident reflects broader concerns about the normalization of military presence in civilian neighborhoods and the suppression of dissent in Washington, D.C., with other humorous protests against such policies also noted. O'Hara's case demands a jury trial, highlighting the legal tensions around civil liberties in the context of federal troop deployment domestically.