San Diego Activist Uses Darth Vader Persona to Challenge Flock Surveillance Program

On August 19, event producer Anthony Ralphs attended a San Diego City Council meeting wearing a full Darth Vader cape, mask, mechanized breathing and voice-changer. The video of the stunt went viral internationally, prompting coverage in multiple languages.

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Flock provides a citywide system that captures vehicle plates and feeds data to law-enforcement databases. Ralph Ralphs first addressed the council in December 2025, when hundreds of residents spoke in person, via Zoom, or submitted online comments urging the city to reject the program. After six hours of deliberation, the council voted to continue the Flock deployment despite the overwhelming public opposition.

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Following the 2025 vote, Ralphs increased his presence at council meetings, initially attending bi-weekly, then weekly, and eventually twice a week by spring 2026. He studied agenda items, learned procedural tactics for securing speaking time, and began organizing other residents to join his comments. By May and June 2026, he reported familiarity with the council’s process and a growing coalition of activists.

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The sources do not include direct statements from council members. The only official action recorded is the council’s vote to maintain the Flock program despite public dissent.

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• “I did all the right things. I wore the suits. I said all the correct talking points. I made all the compelling arguments,” — Anthony Ralphs

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• “After that meeting, where city council decided that none of their constituents' opinions mattered and that they were going to vote how they wanted to vote regardless... After that, the movement was so discouraged, and all of us were so deflated that it was really hard to summon the collective energy and to muster the kind of the vitality that we needed to keep pushing forward,” — Anthony Ralphs

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