{"id":451614,"date":"2026-02-06T01:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/451614\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:51:08","slug":"prosecute-ice-sculpture-at-st-paul-capitol-vandalized-after-unveiling-twin-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/451614\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Prosecute ICE\u2019 sculpture at St. Paul Capitol vandalized after unveiling \u2013 Twin Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ice sculpture made out of frozen letters spelling \u201cProsecute ICE\u201d in front of the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul was vandalized shortly after its unveiling Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"AEdward Jacob Lang (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Jake Lang, a Jan. 6 rioter who served four years in prison before being pardoned by President Donald Trump, claimed responsibility for the sculpture\u2019s destruction. Lang posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, kicking<\/a>\u00a0the frozen letters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m currently being arrested outside the Minnesota State Capitol for turning the \u2018PROSECUTE ICE\u2019 sign the Democrats erected into the wonderful \u2018PRO ICE,’\u201d Lang wrote on X.<\/p>\n

At 2:32 p.m. Thursday, Capitol security dispatchers observed someone damaging a display on the front steps of the Capitol, said Lieutenant Mike Lee, a spokesperson for the Minnesota State Patrol, in an email.<\/p>\n

A male, later identified as Edward Jacob Lang, a 30-year-old man from Lake Worth, Fla., was seen kicking parts of a permitted display that was set up on the Capitol promenade, Lee said. This resulted in part of the display falling on the ground and breaking.<\/p>\n

As he was leaving in a vehicle, Lang was stopped by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and University Avenue where he was arrested without incident, Lee said.<\/p>\n

Lang was brought to the Ramsey County Jail to be booked for suspicion of criminal damage to property, Lee said. The investigation is open and active.<\/p>\n

The sculpture was installed by veterans with Common Defense<\/a>, a veteran-led movement dedicated to protecting democracy and combating authoritarianism, according to its website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave eight years of my life in service to this country in the military. For a January 6 insurrectionist to destroy our display is an attack on the First Amendment veterans like me fought to defend,\u201d said Jacob Thomas, a veteran and communications director for Common Defense, in a news release.<\/p>\n

Lang in Minnesota<\/p>\n

Lang\u2019s act of vandalism came days before he was set to hold a rally at the Capitol, just weeks after he held a Minneapolis \u201cMarch Against Fraud,\u201d which was met with counter-protests and violence.<\/p>\n

An estimated 2,000 counter-protesters followed the dozens who took part in the march itself. Lang fled after being doused with water, pelted with snowballs<\/a> and punched by counter-protesters.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Jan. 28, Lang said he would return to Minnesota and claimed he had secured a permit for a noon rally at the State Capitol on Saturday, Feb. 7.<\/p>\n

But Minnesota Department of Administration spokesperson Julie Nelsen said Lang had not obtained approval for the gathering because \u201cthe space was already reserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minnesota State Patrol, which handles security at the Capitol, said Tuesday it was aware of Lang\u2019s plans for a rally and planned to increase its security presence on Saturday.<\/p>\n

An anti-Trump group secured a permit for a rally at the Capitol later that day. The People\u2019s Coalition Against Trump is scheduled to gather at 3 p.m. on Saturday, according to a Capitol events calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ice sculpture made out of frozen letters spelling \u201cProsecute ICE\u201d in front of the Minnesota Capitol in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,3071,33680,229,88,790,3,32342,18068],"class_list":["post-451614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-crime","tag-crime-public-safety","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-immigration","tag-news","tag-st-paul","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}