(This article was first published on January 22, 2026, at 3 a.m. EST and updated at 10:28 a.m. EST.)

Ultra-rightist Jake Lang and about 10 supporters arrived at Minneapolis City Hall on January 17 for a planned “March Against Minnesota Fraud.” Rather than finding a crowd supportive of his call, he faced hundreds of counter-protesters carrying signs reading “ICE Out!” and “We Love our Somali Neighbors.”

The counter-protesters were among the tens of thousands of Minnesotans who have been in the streets in recent weeks, holding daily rallies and marches, escorting children to school and looking out for their neighbors, demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) end its siege and leave Minnesota.

The administration of U.S. president Donald Trump has harped on the involvement of individuals of Somali descent — alongside others — in stealing millions in public funds from welfare agencies. Trump has used the scandal to vilify the entire Somali population in Minnesota and justify the occupation of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul by masked, heavily-armed ICE agents for more than a month.

Lang was charged with beating police officers with a baseball bat during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by an ultra-rightist mob that tried unsuccessfully to overturn the 2020 election results, egged on by Trump’s calls to “fight like hell.” He was jailed for four years before Trump pardoned him, along with 1,500 other rioters, immediately after the U.S. president’s inauguration a year ago.

Known for his antisemitic views and actions, Lang recently held a demonstration outside the headquarters of AIPAC, the pro-Israeli lobbying group, in Washington, D.C. The event featured a banner reading, “Make Jerusalem Christian Again.”

He has now latched onto the Minnesota fraud cases as a cause célèbre, a neat fit with his racist and anti-Islamic views.

Lang’s plan was to lead supporters from downtown Minneapolis to the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, home to many of the city’s Somali residents. He announced he was going to burn a copy of the Quran, which he had laced with bacon. This overt anti-Muslim insult, along with Lang’s plan to carry his racist “Americans Against Islamification” banner into the heart of the Somali community, was a clear provocation.

Call for counter-protest

The counter mobilization was called by the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump, which brought together social justice and political groups. Leaders of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Indivisible, both at the center of organizing the resistance to ICE, urged activists to participate in the City Hall protest, but to remain peaceful and disciplined in their response to Lang and not to follow his march into the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR, said in a video message, “We encourage people to go to downtown, to respond to this … anti-Muslim hater. However, we are not encouraging people to move that protest from downtown to Cedar-Riverside.” He added, “We have plans to ensure that if he [Lang] comes to Cedar-Riverside that we can defend our community.”

Hussein cautioned, “Muslims and Somali Americans are encouraged not to go to the counter-protests out of the fear that you get emotional and you start doing something that’s probably not acceptable. That’s what they’re baiting us to [do], so if you can restrain yourself, come; if not, it’s probably better to avoid it. We want our white allies to be out there counter-protesting.”

Lang had been in the Twin Cities for at least a week, often taunting anti-ICE protesters. He arrived at City Hall, where the temperature hovered near 10° F, in a camouflage, military-style vest but no hat, gloves, or scarf. Hundreds of protesters stood across the street behind barricades, holding signs and chanting; dozens of others surrounded Lang’s small entourage as he spoke to reporters. Several police officers on the scene left shortly after his arrival; there was no police presence attempting to separate Lang from the counter-protesters.

Lang took a position above the crowd in a wide window well. Despite the megaphone in his hand, his speech was drowned out by the chanting. A few protesters threw snowballs and water balloons at Lang, now trapped on his ledge. It was a young Black man, Isaiah Blackwell, who eventually stepped in to shield Lang, and then cleared a path for him to leave; several dozen protesters followed, some trying to hit or punch him as he went, while others scuffled with Lang supporters. But the vast majority of protesters remained across the street in a disciplined and peaceful counter mobilization.

Lang was eventually driven away from the scene, ironically by two women who thought he was being chased by ICE agents. Later, one of his rescuers, Daye Gottsche, texted Lang once she realized who they had picked up: “I hope this has some sort of impact on you, because the fear and urgency you felt trying to escape that crowd is what people here feel every day. America was never ours to begin with, so how does it make sense that we can’t share, especially with people seeking safety and shelter?”

National media immediately grabbed hold of this incident, playing up the violence and overlooking the hundreds of well-disciplined Minnesotans across the street who simply chanted “Leave, leave, leave” and “Shame, shame, shame.” Lang, who did suffer a cut to the back of the head and was clearly shaken by the encounter, claimed that someone had tried to “stab” him through his vest.

January 18 counter-protest targets church service

The following day, another incident garnered national press attention as a group of protesters, including leaders of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, entered Cities Church. While Baptist pastor Joshua Parnell tried to deliver a sermon, they began chanting the name of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed January 7 by an ICE agent, and “ICE Out!” Protesters said another pastor at the church, David Easterwood, leads the local ICE field office responsible for overseeing the violent tactics and brutal anti-immigrant raids in recent months.

The Department of Justice responded within hours, stating it was investigating federal civil rights violations “by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.”

According to the January 22 Minnesota Star Tribune, “FBI and Homeland Security agents arrested civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong in connection with the disruption of a church service on Sunday [January 18].” A defense effort will now be needed to demand Armstrong’s release and dismissal of any charges against her.

Minnesotans have staked out important political space in the fight against the ICE crackdown, drawing many people into action who had not previously participated in political protests. Defense of that space and the right to free speech and assembly is critical in the fight for immigrant rights and in defense of all democratic rights now under frontal assault by the Trump administration.

For its part, the U.S. government will continue to take every opportunity to narrow that space and restrict democratic rights. Trump has made it clear he is looking for the flimsiest excuse to invoke the “Insurrection Act” and send the U.S. military to the Twin Cities to quell unrest, falsely claiming that Minneapolis and St. Paul — and the state of Minnesota — are rife with corruption and crime. His administration is working fast and furious to restrict the rights of demonstrators, to go after both protesters on the streets and local government officials with allegations of obstruction, incitement to riot, and “domestic terrorism.”

The decision to counter-mobilize against Jake Lang was spot on. But the physical attacks on Lang — whether carried out by genuine opponents of ICE terror or by provocateurs, who easily blend into such situations — undermined the political space and moral high ground that tens of thousands have carved out in the Twin Cities recently.

Entering a church and disrupting a congregation was similarly a blow against the gains of the anti-ICE protests. Not only was it a violation of the rights of the worshippers; it undercut the ability of those leading the protests to continue to win the hearts and minds of a growing number of potential allies among working- and middle-class people and among all those who care for free speech and other democratic rights

Undisciplined and confrontational tactics undercut the chances of making broad layers of working people feel comfortable to participate in the spreading resistance to ICE terror — a goal that protest organizers have been working hard to achieve. Such mass participation is needed not only to press for ending the ICE siege but to promote broader demands like amnesty and legalization of all undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States.

Government spying, disruption, and provocations

History is rife with examples of the FBI and other government agencies trying to foment violence and division in movements for social justice. They have used provocateurs like Lang, as well as undercover agents posing as protesters who infiltrate political organizations, looking for any opportunity to steer activists toward unnecessary confrontation and violence.

The FBI Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) between 1956 and 1971 infamously deployed spies and agent provocateurs to discredit and disrupt the leadership and ranks of Black, Latino, and Native American rights organizations; the anti-Vietnam War movement; working-class political parties; and others fighting for social change. A central goal was to “inspire action in instances where circumstances warrant,” said one 1960s FBI memo, and to exploit the frustration and anger of many sincere activists and incite factionalism, rivalries, scandals, and a decline of discipline.

On January 17, as Lang ran from the scene, the vast majority of the counter-protesters simply shouted, “Leave, leave, leave.” But a handful could be heard saying, “Kick his ass!” potentially playing right into the hands of those who work in the shadows to undermine democratic rights and the social movements that depend on those rights.

There are many examples of how undisciplined outbursts or caving in to pressure to act violently during public events can backfire.

In the spirit of using the lessons of the past from working-class history to inform strategy and tactics for today, and maximize the chances for thoughtful and disciplined action, we publish below an article describing one such case.

First appearing in the March 19, 1962, Militant newspaper, the article describes a physical assault on Nazi hate-monger George Lincoln Rockwell while he spoke at San Diego State College and how school officials used the incident to curtail free speech on campus. The headline, subhead, and text below are from the original.

— World-Outlook editors

*

Student Attack on Nazi Used as Alibi to Curb Campus Free Speech

San Diego College Bars Militant Editor

By Harry Ring

March 14, [1962] — A student attack on Nazi hate-monger George Lincoln Rockwell at San Diego State College in California was quickly seized upon by college officials to curb campus free speech. First victim of the curb was Joseph Hansen, editor of The Militant. A student meeting at which he was scheduled to speak yesterday was abruptly canceled.

The March 8 student gang-up on Rockwell and the subsequent suspension of talks by outside speakers provoked strong controversy on the campus and evoked wide publicity in the San Diego press and on local TV and radio.

Despite the cancellation of his campus meeting, Hansen, who is speaking about his recent tour of Latin America, has been able to bring his views to the students and residents of the area. In place of the canceled meeting students organized one for him at a restaurant near the college. It was covered by local reporters who interviewed him afterward. A ten-minute interview was taped by the local ABC-TV station in which he was asked to tell the TV audience what he would have spoken about if college authorities had permitted him to appear. The interviewer went on to question him about Latin America and about his support of the Cuban revolution.

The campus free-speech fight was sparked by the breaking up of the Rockwell meeting. He had been invited to speak by the Committee for Student Action, a campus group actively concerned with social issues, which has sought to promote a free exchange of ideas by sponsoring speakers of differing and controversial viewpoints.

As Rockwell spewed out his poisonous, race-hating, red-baiting “message” one of the students, Ed Cherry, strode to the platform and tried to take the microphone from Rockwell. When the would-be fuehrer shoved him away, Cherry slugged him on the chin. Two of Rockwell’s bodyguards jumped him and the meeting ended in turmoil.

Cherry later expressed strong regret for his action, explaining that he had gone to the meeting out of simple curiosity but had “boiled over” listening to Rockwell’s vilification of Jews and felt impelled to refute his slanders. He said that when Rockwell shoved him, he lost all control.

Other students, however, apparently went to the meeting with the intention of breaking it up and some carried a supply of eggs. As Rockwell was escorted from the open-air theater where the meeting was held, he was pelted with the eggs. Several hundred shouting students gathered in the corridor outside the barred door of the office of the campus paper, the San Diego Daily Aztec, where he held a hasty press conference.

When Rockwell’s car was brought to the building it was besieged by students. More eggs flew, one car window was shattered and the grill kicked in.

But the many letters to the Daily Aztec, along with statements by campus organizations, indicated that the majority of the students reacted strongly against the breaking up of the Rockwell meeting. Virtually all of those who expressed themselves emphasized that free speech — already seriously jeopardized in this country — can only be further endangered by attacks on the democratic rights of even so odious and hateful a figure as Rockwell.

The Right to Speak

Aztec reporter Gerald Rife declared: “Our country is built on the principle that every man is entitled to his own opinion and the right to express it. When Rockwell’s right was endangered, your right and mine was also endangered. Whether the man is a Fascist, a Communist, or Satan himself, he has the RIGHT to speak.”

A letter signed by 22 students expressed admiration for those who voiced their opposition to Rockwell with a placard demonstration. Criticizing those who turned the meeting into a free-for-all, the letter warned: “The possibility that any further controversial issues will be barred from our campus is great.”

The warning proved sound. Yesterday’s Aztec reported that acting on the demand of College President Malcolm Love, a joint  student-faculty committee voted to ban open meetings on the campus until “procedures and policies” governing such meetings are reviewed. The president made clear that there would be greater curbs in the new policy.

Pressured

At the same meeting of this governing body, the Committee for Student Action withdrew its request of the already authorized Hansen meeting. The withdrawal was made by Allan Lachman, vice-president of the group, after he had been called before the college president. In announcing the withdrawal of the request, Lachman stated, “This move came as the result of pressures being applied by certain elements…”

At the time, it was said that Dr. Love had agreed that if the open meeting for Hansen were called off, a “closed” one would be permitted. But this too was canceled, with the local press reporting that Love feared a “riot” if Hansen appeared on campus.

The only campus group publicly favoring a curb on outside speakers was the Young Republicans who issued a statement on the Rockwell incident which said: “Undoubtedly this individual was brought to the campus to be a forerunner for the Socialist Workers Party members and Communist speakers. We will no doubt soon be hearing the argument that if a Nazi is allowed to speak on campus, why not a Communist.”

Immediately after the ban on Hansen, the Young Republicans were turned down on a request to sponsor a debate between a Republican and a Democrat.

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