The already embattled police officers in Minneapolis have been alerted that the leader of a counter-protest in support of armed and masked ICE agents has been given a permit to hit the streets on Saturday.
According to a report from the Washington Post, right-wing provocateur Jake Lang, who was given a pardon by Donald Trump after attacking Capitol cops with a baseball bat on Jan. 6, will lead his own protest march in the city that has been turned into a battleground over the president’s brutal immigration policies.
The Post is reporting that Lang has billed his march as a peaceful protest “intended to unite Christian and conservative voices.”
That has raised fears of a battle between Lang’s fans and the anti-ICE citizens who have been out in force in the streets protesting since an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good just over a week ago.
According to the Post, “State and local agencies and the Minnesota National Guard were preparing to monitor the demonstrations, officials said during a news conference on Friday afternoon,” with Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson warning, “While peaceful expression is protected, any actions that harm people, destroy property or jeopardize public safety will not be tolerated.”
As for Lang, the report notes, he was accused of wielding and using a baseball bat as part of the Jan. 6 insurrection in support of Trump and, “... had sat in jail for four years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as he was awaiting trial. During that time, he tried to organize an armed militant group while detained pending trial, refused to adhere to jail rules and left the court ‘no basis to conclude that he poses anything but a continuing danger to the public,’ a federal judge assigned to his case wrote last year.”
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