The American Civil Liberties Union says The Force, errr, First Amendment is with Sam O'Hara, filing a lawsuit on his behalf after he was handcuffed and detained after following National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. playing the Darth Vader theme from the Star Wars film franchise.
  • tidderuuf@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    “Ohio National Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck was not amused by this satire,” the complaint states, and after “less than two minutes” of O’Hara’s musical protest, Beck “turned around and threatened to call the police officers to ‘handle’ Mr. O’Hara if he did not stop.”

    O’Hara kept playing the song, and Beck called the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, who arrived on the scene. The MPD officers accused O’Hara of “harassing” and “assaulting” the Guard members; he denied these accusations and insisted he was peacefully protesting by standing on the sidewalk and playing music on his phone. The MPD officers “tightly handcuffed and detained Mr. O’Hara for between 15 and 20 minutes,” the complaint states.

    Sounds like that Sgt and the N. Guard being there are more of a nuisance.

    If MPD had enough free time to go after something as petty as this then there must be no other real crimes going on so then we have to ask, wtf are the military still doing there?

    • quick_snail@feddit.nl
      0·
      7 months ago

      I honesty don’t think the national guard did something bad. We should blame the police for not chewing out the national guard for wasting their time, then leaving.

      • Dragonstaff@leminal.spaceEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        The Guard is an agent of the state. Being this clueless about the First Amendment shows poorly on him as an American, but also suggests poor training by his command structure.

        Yes, the MPD are actually the ones who violated his civil rights.