This story has an almost ridiculously cinematic quality. On a street in Washington, D.C., a man strolls slowly behind a National Guard patrol while holding a phone and listening to speakers that play the deep brass notes of Darth Vader’s theme. No indications. Don’t yell. Just a line of armed troops walking through a neighborhood that never requested to be patrolled, accompanied by distinct, pointed music.
That man was Sam O’Hara, an artist who works in the hospitality sector and lives in Washington, D.C. And he was put in handcuffs for that subtle musical satire last year.
In the months after President Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington, the incident took place on September 11, 2025. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard soldiers had poured into the district to assist local police in patrolling the streets in a city that was strongly Democratic and bitterly opposed their presence. O’Hara didn’t react angrily or aggressively. It was The Imperial March, the Star Wars universe’s orchestral theme that heralds the arrival of tyrannical, dark power. There was no nuance to the symbolism. It wasn’t intended to be.
By all accounts, Ohio National Guard Sergeant Devon Beck was not won over. Beck turned and told O’Hara to stop or face the police within two minutes of him starting to follow the patrol. O’Hara continued to record. After Beck made the call, four officers from the Metropolitan Police Department showed up, handcuffed O’Hara, and detained him for fifteen to twenty minutes before releasing him without filing any charges.
The case was taken on by the ACLU. O’Hara filed a lawsuit against Beck, the District of Columbia, and the four involved officers, claiming that his First and Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. His lawsuit was based on the kind of straightforward legal reasoning that usually works well in court: it is not illegal to walk on a public street while playing music. Playing music while being followed does not constitute interference. Furthermore, handcuffing someone is not justified by any reasonable interpretation of the Constitution.
Now, the District of Columbia is settled. Although the precise amount isn’t being revealed, an ACLU representative described the financial terms as “a significant amount” that O’Hara is happy with. The attorney general’s office in Washington, D.C., declined to comment. Governments frequently favor this type of quiet resolution, which consists of a check and a case filing stating that specific claims are being dropped rather than an admission of wrongdoing or a press conference.
It’s not just the money that makes the Sam O’Hara DC settlement noteworthy. It’s what the entire episode shows about how protest is handled in a city under an atypical and contentious federal deployment. O’Hara’s music was “distracting,” armed patrols must “hear” their surroundings, and Beck could legitimately have felt harassed, according to the Justice Department’s defense of Beck. Those arguments might represent sincere security considerations. It’s also difficult to overlook the fact that none of those issues resulted in a formal charge because he had nothing to be charged with.
Millions of people watched O’Hara’s TikTok videos of his interactions. They seem to have struck a deep chord with the public because they were so purposefully, constitutionally ordinary, rather than because they were shocking. A man. a phone. A song that everyone can relate to right away. and soldiers who didn’t seem to find it funny.
Not everything is resolved by the settlement with D.C. O’Hara’s allegations against Sergeant Beck are still pending. Beck’s lawyers have requested that a judge reject those allegations, citing qualified immunity and pointing out that Beck was only carrying out his assigned responsibilities. There is still no resolution to that thread.
However, as this case develops, it’s difficult to deny that legal strategy wasn’t O’Hara’s most significant action. It was asserting that public space belongs to the public, even when it is crowded with soldiers, with amazing poise and a very particular playlist.
