Protests towards President Trump’s choice to ship the Nationwide Guard into American cities haven’t any shortage of whimsy, however the empire struck again towards one demonstrator.
A lawsuit filed on October 23 accuses cops and a Nationwide Guard member of violating a protester’s constitutional proper to play the “Imperial March” theme from Star Wars.
The D.C. resident, Sam O’Hara, was “tightly handcuffed” and detained for 20 minutes after ignoring a warning from a Nationwide Guard member to cease enjoying the tune. Within the complaint, O’Hara alleges that 4 Washington, D.C., cops, an Ohio Nationwide Guard sergeant, and the District of Columbia violated his First Modification rights.
“Authorities conduct of this type might need obtained authorized sanction a very long time in the past in a galaxy far, distant,” the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the go well with on O’Hara’s behalf, said. “However within the right here and now, the First Modification bars authorities officers from restraining people from recording regulation enforcement or peacefully protesting, and the Fourth Modification (together with the District’s prohibition on false arrest) bars groundless seizures.”
O’Hara started filming the Nationwide Guard deployment in D.C. over the summer season, typically following behind Guard members whereas enjoying the tune after which posting the movies to a TikTok account that has greater than one million likes throughout 24 movies.
“Armed Nationwide Guard shouldn’t be policing D.C. residents as we stroll round our neighborhoods,” O’Hara mentioned. “It was vital to me to not normalize this dystopian occupation.
The “Imperial March” theme is related to the fictional fascist empire from Star Wars; its major villain, Darth Vader; and the empire’s foot troopers, the Stormtroopers. The Galactic Empire, lengthy a fixture of popular culture, deliberately echoes the aesthetics and insurance policies of Nazi Germany.
“The federal government doesn’t get to resolve in case your protest is humorous, and authorities officers can’t punish you for making them the punch line,” ACLU-DC senior employees legal professional Michael Perloff mentioned in a press launch. “That’s actually the entire level of the First Modification.”
Clashes over Nationwide Guard deployment
The lawsuit is the newest conflict in courts over the Trump administration’s choice to deploy Nationwide Guard troops to a handful of U.S. cities with Democratic management. The Nationwide Guard has already been activated in Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Portland, Oregon; and Memphis, although these deployments are the topic of ongoing court battles between state and native leaders and the federal authorities. Trump has additionally threatened deployments in New York Metropolis, Baltimore, the Bay Space, St. Louis, and New Orleans.
The Nationwide Guard is traditionally referred to as in by state governors to assist with emergencies and pure disasters, however guard members may also be mobilized by the federal authorities for nationwide emergencies. Final 12 months, Nationwide Guard members deployed in 17 states performed search and rescue missions and delivered meals and water to victims of Hurricane Helene.
Since first deploying the Nationwide Guard to Los Angeles in June towards the needs of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump has escalated his unprecedented use of the state army power in U.S. cities. Trump claims that the Nationwide Guard is important to quell city crime, however violent crime has already dropped dramatically in lots of the cities focused for the bizarre deployments. Murder charges dropped by 50% within the first half of 2025 in Portland, Oregon, and in Memphis, theft, housebreaking, and larceny hit 25-year lows this 12 months.
“As I’ve mentioned from the start, the variety of federal troops we want in Portland is zero,” Mayor Keith Wilson said of the deployment earlier this month. “Not from Oregon. Not from California. Not from Texas. And never from wherever else.”
On October 23, Trump appeared to again down from a menace to ship the Nationwide Guard to San Francisco after a persuasive cellphone name with the CEOs of Nvidia and Salesforce. “Nice individuals like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have referred to as saying that the way forward for San Francisco is nice,” Trump wrote on Reality Social. “They wish to give it a ‘shot.’ Due to this fact, we won’t surge San Francisco on Saturday.”
Hen fits and Star Wars
Because the courts resolve the legality of Trump’s unilateral use of Nationwide Guard troops, protesters are weaponizing absurdism and humor towards the presence of federal regulation enforcement. In Portland, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility has famously attracted a growing crowd of peaceable protesters carrying inflatable animal costumes. The development was impressed by the early look of a frog-suit-clad activist who has since been pepper sprayed directly into his air-intake vent.
One other Portland protest common well-known for carrying a rooster go well with defined using humor in a recent interview with town’s alt-weekly: “What they depend on is worry. So by popping out in an absurdist method, it [says] that we’re really not that afraid,” Jack Dickinson, 26, informed the Willamette Week.
“Once they attempt to describe this example as ‘war-torn,’ it turns into a lot tougher to take them severely,” Dickinson added. “Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Military and it’s eight journalists and 5 protesters and certainly one of them is in a rooster go well with.”
