Two days after he stood outside a fallen Philadelphia officer’s funeral with a sign blaming the District Attorney, Jake Lang came back to Philadelphia. This time he got himself thrown out of City Council.
Lang, a pardoned January 6 rioter from New York who once faced federal charges for assaulting police officers, took the microphone during public comment at Thursday’s Council session at City Hall. He was signed up to speak on a school lunch item. Instead, he pivoted to racial accusations and to Sergeant Shane Seiber, repeating the claim printed on his sign that Black thugs murdered Seiber. Council members told him to stay on topic. His microphone was cut. Security escorted him out while he kept shouting, “Justice for Shane Seiber.”
Lang posted the video of his own ejection to Instagram and Facebook on Thursday afternoon. A few hours later, a local account reported him spotted in Rittenhouse, near Parc. Philadelphia has now seen him twice in three days, both times uninvited by anyone burying a police officer or governing a city.
The first visit was Tuesday, the day Philadelphia buried Seiber. Lang posted video of himself on a Center City street during the funeral, uniformed Philadelphia officers standing a few feet behind him. In the video, he holds a large sign blaming District Attorney Larry Krasner for Seiber’s death. The sign pairs photos of Krasner, of Seiber in uniform under the words “Hero Officer,” and of Eric Lewis, the man charged in the killing. Its text reads, “Larry Krasner & weak woke DAs caused this,” and “murdered by racist black thug Eric Lewis.” He posted it with a caption that misspelled the sergeant’s name.
Seiber, 40, was killed on October 10 after responding to a report of a person with a gun in West Philadelphia. His partner, Officer Hector Rodriguez, was shot 12 times and survived. At Tuesday’s funeral, Commissioner Kevin Bethel announced Seiber’s posthumous promotion to sergeant. Lewis, 35, is in custody, and he is presumed innocent.
Lang’s history with police is the reason his appearances draw a second look. Federal prosecutors charged him over the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, alleging he assaulted officers with a baseball bat and a stolen police shield. He spent about four years in custody awaiting trial and was never convicted. His case was dismissed after President Donald Trump granted clemency to January 6 defendants on January 20, 2025.
Since his release, Lang has built a traveling protest act, mostly aimed at Muslims and immigrants. In January, counter-protesters in Minneapolis chased off his pro-ICE demonstration, and news reports said he left with injuries. In August, his protest in Dearborn, Michigan drew roughly 2,000 protesters and counter-protesters. This month he protested a Palestinian festival in Bridgeview, Illinois, drawing a public rebuke from a state representative, and followed a Muslim Senate candidate in Michigan. He announced a run for the U.S. Senate in Florida last year and did not make the ballot. He also faces charges in Minnesota, over an ice sculpture he is accused of toppling at the State Capitol, and in Texas, where he was arrested in June on a terroristic threat charge. Those cases are allegations, and he is presumed innocent in them as well.
The sign’s target, Krasner, is a strange one on the facts of this case alone, because it is Krasner’s office that is prosecuting Lewis. Lang’s blame follows a claim circulating among the DA’s critics, who allege the office failed in an earlier murder case involving Lewis years before Seiber’s death, and a petition seeking an independent investigation has been circulating since last week. The DA’s office disputes the allegation. On Oct. 13, Krasner said his two prosecutors in the 2023 trial “did everything humanly possible,” blaming a “deeply flawed” police investigation, including an officer whose conduct was referred to Internal Affairs. The PPD pushed back, saying the full record would be addressed later.
In a related development Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted Lewis on five counts, including Hobbs Act robbery and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced. The indictment carries a 10-year mandatory minimum and a possible life sentence. Lewis allegedly used a ghost gun and a sawed-off shotgun, stole Officer Rodriguez’s service weapon after the shooting, and fired at nine other officers before surrendering to SWAT. He also faces 76 state charges and is being held without bail.
No Philadelphia news outlet appears to have reported either of Lang’s appearances, at the funeral on Tuesday or at City Hall on Thursday, and neither the Police Department nor the District Attorney’s office has put out a statement about them. The officers standing behind Lang in his own funeral video did not engage with him, and Council’s security handled Thursday in about the time it takes to cut a microphone.
Lang got his videos, twice. Philadelphia got the last word both times. On Tuesday it was the procession. On Thursday it was the door.
