Minneapolis police arrested far-right activist Jake Lang and the occupants of two vehicles after a pickup drove onto a pavement outside City Hall toward a crowd gathered for a counter-protest. Authorities said the incident occurred around 11:50 on Saturday morning and that the vehicles were later impounded.
Interim Police Chief Bill Peterson said officers detained everyone from the two vehicles on probable cause of riot. Police made four other arrests near City Hall over suspected offences including disorderly conduct and assault. Officials cautioned that further charges could follow. Arrest on probable cause is not a finding of guilt.
Hundreds of counter-demonstrators had assembled before a rally promoted by Lang. Police erected barriers intended to separate street traffic from the crowds, but Peterson said the vehicles turned abruptly onto the South 4th Street pavement. Lang was standing in the rear of a pickup and displaying a sign containing a racial slur. People surged toward the vehicles, and some threw liquids while officers tried to keep the groups apart.
The confrontation continued along the block through shoving, fights and objects being thrown. Chemical irritants spread through parts of downtown as spectators arrived for a Minnesota Vikings home game. Peterson said he believed people on both sides deployed the irritants and that police did not.
Three officers were hurt. Police said one suffered an ankle injury when a vehicle rolled over it, while another was struck on the head by a hard object. One officer went to hospital and was subsequently released. After leaving the area, the two vehicles carrying Lang and six other occupants separated. The Minnesota State Patrol stopped one in Minneapolis, while Bloomington police intercepted the second in Bloomington, allowing Minneapolis officers to make the arrests.
Lang had come to the city to support a Rochester woman who used a racial slur against a Black autistic child, according to a social-media post described in the supplied report. Mayor Jacob Frey had previously urged residents not to attend the rally. At the police briefing, he said people who endangered public safety by driving onto a pavement or inciting disorder would be arrested.
The case now moves from the public-order response to review by investigators and prosecutors. Police had not released the names of the other people detained by early Saturday evening, and the source contained no final charging decisions.
Police said the crowd had quickly closed around the vehicles after they mounted the pavement. The slow procession then continued for the length of the block before the drivers accelerated away. Peterson's briefing did not indicate that officers used the chemical agents detected in the area.
