A Black man and a Black transgender woman helped rescue white supremacist provocateur Jake Lang after his anti-Somali, anti-Islam protest erupted into violence outside Minneapolis City Hall last Saturday. Lang, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate who assaulted U.S. Capitol police during the January 6, 2021 riots, had vowed to march through the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and burn a Quran.
Instead, roughly 100 anti-racist counterprotestors surrounded the event’s 10 attendees, throwing objects and water balloons before chasing Lang away. As Lang was beaten and kicked by members of the crowd, 30-year-old Minneapolis resident Isaiah Blackwell intervened. Blackwell told The Star Tribune, “I’m a man, and I believe all humans should be treated the same. It doesn’t matter…Lang has a story to tell, like I have a story to tell.” After fleeing to a nearby hotel, Lang was again attacked before 22-year-old trans woman Daye Gottsche let him into a car.
She said, “All of a sudden, there’s a bloody man running up to our car and begging for help. We let him in.”Despite rejecting Lang’s ideology, Gottsche later texted him that she hoped the experience would help him understand the fear marginalized communities live with daily. Lang later described the incident on Alex Jones’ InfoWars, saying he was lynched but Good Samaritans saw the humanity of the situation and saved him. Minneapolis has become a hotbed of resistance against ICE agents ever since ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed a queer mother of three.
