Star Wars Fan Protests New San Diego Surveillance Cameras As Darth Vader

Darth Vader Advocates For Controversial San Diego Surveillance Tech, "The Emperor Is A Fan" Custom image made by James Lucas with assets provided by Adobe Stock. Published Aug 21, 2026, 8:51 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Sign in to your TheGamer account The last person you want to support your cause is an evil Sith Lord hell-bent on galactic domination, but unfortunately for the San Diego council, they had the full backing of The Emperor himself. Kind of. In protest of new surveillance cameras being rolled out in the city, a Star Wars fan dressed up as Darth Vader appeared at a council meeting to advocate for the new Flock AI-assisted technology. "The Emperor is a fan of Flock, and we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium," The Dark Lord said during a public comment portion of the meeting (as reported by 404 Media). "Because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers; they are following children. They are following children in parks and gymnasiums, and we need this. I need this so I can stalk my ex-girlfriend." I'm not entirely sure how Darth Vader plans to do that considering, uh, well, what happened to Padme, but it'll at least be handy for monitoring "rebel scum" as he puts it. "This is what the Emperor needs," Darth Vader continued. "This technology will help us find the rebel scum and their hidden base on Hoth. This technology will help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing. This technology is a necessary, necessary force." Why Darth Vader Is Protesting Flock Cameras Via 404 Media. In all seriousness, the over 500 surveillance cameras that have already been rolled out across San Diego are proving incredibly controversial right now, as they have given the SDPD access to "open source intelligence" that supplements license plate data with personal info gathered from other companies and the internet. According to a Flock employee, using their AI-assisted cameras, police are "able to access data and jump from LPR to person and understand what that context is" and then "link to other people that are related to that person," whether that's through gang affiliation or something as innocuous as marriage. To put into perspective how overreaching this technology is, a San Diego man spent a month in jail after a camera wrongly flagged him for a felony crime involving a handgun. To hear Darth Vader say it, "How will people trust this city council when this city council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them?" Release Date May 25, 1977 Runtime 121 minutes Director George Lucas Writers George Lucas Sequel(s) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Franchise(s) Star Wars