Pardoned Jan 6 rioter Jake Lang arrested in Minneapolis for vandalism
Jake Lang posted a video of himself kicking down an anti-ICE sculpture at the Minnesota State Capitol, before triumphantly declaring: “Pro ICE baby! America first, America only”
A far-right provocateur and pardoned January 6 rioter has been arrested in Minneapolis for vandalising a "PROSECUTE ICE" sculpture at the Minnesota State Capitol.
Jake Lang posted a video of himself on X in which he kicks down the ice installation, which was put in place earlier on Thursday by a veterans group in protest against ICE’s presence in Minnesota as part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Lang, 30, dressed in military-style camouflage, begins the video speaking directly to the camera: “President Trump, we support you. We support ICE. Our country was made for Americans, not for Somalis.”
He then strides over to the sculpture and kicks out the six middle letters, so it reads “PRO ICE.”
Once the destruction is finished, Lang raises his arms triumphantly to declare: “Pro ICE baby! America first, America only.”
The 30-year-old was seen leaving the area in a vehicle and was subsequently stopped by a state trooper at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and University Avenue, local news affiliate Fox 9 reported; he was arrested without incident and booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of criminal damage to property.
In an update to his original video, Lang posted that he was being charged with a felony “for $6000 in damage.”
Lang, who was among the roughly 1,600 rioters granted clemency by the president on his first day in office for their roles in the events of January 6, travelled to Minneapolis in support of hundreds of federal immigration agents who have flooded Minneapolis in recent weeks.
At a rally in the city on Saturday, January 17, Lang was vastly overwhelmed by counter-protesters who chased him from the city’s federal courthouse and targeted him with water balloons amid sub-freezing temperatures.
Earlier that day, Lang’s group played the song “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice and railed against immigrants, who they claimed were “replacing” white people as counter-protesters shouted them down, according to The Washington Post.
Lang, who promised to burn a Quran during the demonstration, branded the rally a “CRUSADER MARCH” on “Little Somalia,” referencing the state’s large Somali population that the administration has accused of widespread fraud as the president expands his mass deportation campaign.
The event drew sharp opposition from critics, who derided his march as racist and Islamophobic.
Lang, who is now running for the U.S. Senate in Florida, has also said he believes the Proud Boys should be deputized to “bounty hunt illegal immigrants.”
Veteran Jacob Thomas, communications director for Common Defense, the activist group that unveiled the ice sculpture, called for Lang’s prosecution in a statement shared with Fox 9.
"I gave eight years of my life in service to this country in the military,” Thomas said. “For a January 6 insurrectionist to destroy our display is an attack on the First Amendment veterans like me fought to defend. Like the ICE agents who murdered Alex Pretti and Rebecca Good — these criminals need to be prosecuted.”
Ryan Thomas, a St Paul resident who helped organize Thursday’s unveiling, said Lang’s vandalism was a “sad stunt” that shouldn’t distract from the sculpture’s message: “ICE and the rogue federal agents terrorizing communities, killing and brutalizing people, and clearly breaking the law while they do it must be held accountable by state authorities.”
Lang ended his video with a call for supporters to join him at another rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday.
Bookmark popover
Removed from bookmarks