Videos from yesterday's religious gathering in Dearborn appear to show provocateur Jake Lang being chased, punched and forced toward a police vehicle as officers tried to break up a confrontation. Lang later claimed online that he was nearly killed, while the footage circulating from the scene leaves key questions unanswered about how the clash began and what happened immediately before police intervened.
According to The Detroit News, videos from Greenfield Road show Lang shouting about illegal immigration and saying, “We support ICE,” during yesterday’s Arbaeen celebration. One clip appears to show a group of men chasing him through a lot, followed by a punch from behind, while other footage shows Dearborn officers pushing Lang into a squad car and telling the crowd to disperse.
Lang said in an X post that a rock hit the back of his head and caused bleeding, and he described the scene as an attempt to “nearly stone” him to death. He also claimed people tried to pull him from the squad car and kill him, while the drone footage he posted appeared to show another angle of the same confrontation, The Detroit News reported.
Dearborn’s religious gathering became a flashpoint
Arbaeen is a Shia Muslim observance held 40 days after Ashura, commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali and traditionally associated with pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq, according to the University of Michigan. Dearborn’s large summer religious processions have drawn thousands of participants and formal city support, with police providing traffic and crowd control for related events, as Hoodline previously reported.
The confrontation is the latest in a string of provocative appearances by Lang, a self-described anti-Muslim activist and pardoned participant in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. CBS Texas reported in June that Lang had spent four years in prison for his role in the Capitol attack and was facing a terroristic-threat charge in Texas, where his bond was reduced from $1 million to $250,000.
Police have not publicly detailed the confrontation
Dearborn police officials had not responded to requests for comment about yesterday’s incident as of the latest reporting, and no public account had clarified whether anyone besides Lang was cited or arrested. The available videos show a volatile encounter, but they do not independently establish who threw the first punch, whether a rock struck Lang, or whether anyone intended to cause him fatal harm.
