The far-right influencer and US Senate candidate Jake Lang has been arrested after recording himself damaging an anti-ICE sculpture at Minnesota’s capitol amid the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s crackdown there.
On 5 February, Lang, who received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump over his role in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, posted a video on X of himself kicking down the sculpture, which was made from ice – as in, frozen water. His efforts changed it from reading “Prosecute ICE” to “Pro ICE”, referring to the federal agency.
Local authorities arrested Lang that same day and jailed the Florida resident on suspicion of criminal damage to property, which is classified as a felony.
A veterans organization, Common Defense, had commissioned the ice sculpture and installed it on the steps of Minnesota’s state capitol in St Paul. The group had obtained permits for the display.
“I gave eight years of my life in service to this country in the military,” Common Defense’s communications director, Jacob Thomas, said in a statement, as reported by the local news station Fox 9. Referring to the constitutional right to free speech, Thomas’s statement continued: “For a [January 6] insurrectionist to destroy our display is an attack on the First Amendment veterans like me fought to defend.”
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