‘Spider-Man’ punches MAGA-aligned protestor at Minneapolis rally
A man dressed as Spider-Man was involved with a scuffle at a Jake Lang rally (Getty Images)
A Minneapolis rally organised by Jake Lang descended into chaos on Saturday (23 August) when a counter-protester dressed as Spider-Man appeared to punch Lang in the face.
Lang, a former Republican candidate for US Senate in Florida and 6 January participant who Donald Trump later pardoned, was holding a sign containing an anti-Black racial slur during the rally outside Minneapolis City Hall.
The event was reportedly organised in response to the conviction of Shiloh Hendrix, a white woman who was found guilty of disorderly conduct after directing the same slur at an autistic eight-year-old Black boy at a playground in nearby Rochester.
Lang and his supporters were at City Hall for only a few minutes before the demonstration devolved into violence and they fled the area, as Newsweek reported. Video from the event clearly showed a man dressed as Spider-Man, later identified as William Nicholas Love, striking Lang in the face.
Love was among 11 people arrested and has been charged with assault, while Lang was also arrested and charged with inciting a riot.
Lang has previously staged anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim protests in Minneapolis, struggled to burn a Pride flag during a demonstration against LGBTQ+ people, and been the subject of violent confrontations with counter-protesters.
And in a strange twist, Lang was actually rescued from a Minneapolis protest in January of this year by a Black transgender woman who helped him escape after another of his demonstrations attracted a much larger group of counter-protesters, as reported by FOX 9.
The Spider-Man footage has since gone viral online, while a fundraiser for Love’s legal defence has raised almost $90,000 at the time of writing.
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