Insane Clown Posse suing FBI over its classification of Juggalos as a gang

In October 2011, the FBI added Juggalos (followers of Insane Clown Posse) to its National Gang Threat Assessment (PDF).

From the report:

The Juggalos, a loosely-organized hybrid gang, are rapidly expanding into many US communities. Although recognized as a gang in only four states, many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence. Law enforcement officials in at least 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo sub-sets, according to NGiC reporting.

NGiC reporting indicates that Juggalo gangs are expanding in New Mexico primarily because they are attracted to the tribal and cultural traditions of the Native Americans residing nearby.

Today, The A.V. Club reports that the Insane Clown Posse is "suing the FBI over the organization’s classification of Juggalos as a gang."

On Tuesday, the band’s lawyers filed suit against the FBI in U.S. District Court in Michigan “for failure to produce any documentary evidence in support of the FBI’s classification of the group’s fan base.” ... To date, thousands of Juggalos have filled out the questionnaire on Juggalos Fight Back, a website set up by ICP for fans to report “negative consequences” they’ve experienced at the hands of “law enforcement, border patrol, airline security, or other local, state, or federal governmental agency or employee.”

Insane Clown Posse is actually going forward with suing the FBI

American Juggalo from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Brainspore

Isn’t the purpose of a “posse” to assist law enforcement?
- acerplatanoides
  
  who’s the insane clown now?
bzishi

Some people at the FBI had watched the film “The Warriors” and then saw a picture of a Juggalo on TV. A couple of neurons began to slowly fire and they muttered to themselves “fuckin’ gangs, how do they work?”
- mccrum
  
  Hopefully they’ll finally crack down on both the Furies baseball gang and the one on skates (we’ll lose them on the stairs!).
  - http://www.facebook.com/lahjik Scott McDaniel
    
    WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING TO CONTROL THE JETS AND THE SHARKS!!!
- niktemadur
  
  Sounds like they couldn’t dig it.
- Quiche de Resistance
  
  Juggalos, come out and plaaaay.
big ryan

id assume that being on a government watch list would be great marketing for ICP, their fans seem to embrace the delusion of being hardcore thugs, this can only enforce that feeling
- Jem Sweeney
  
  Yeah, but their fans are just dumb white people who don’t have any idea what it’s like to be considered second-class threats to society. I’m sure they’d get tired of being stomped down by the Man after a while.
  - BarBarSeven
    
    And that would be bad because why?
Lobster

What is a Juggalo? I don’t know.
- petertrepan
  
  Here is an explanatory document:
  http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/icpinsaneclownposse/whatisajuggalo.html
  - http://profiles.google.com/loosexleaves Ashley Coats
    
    Yeah I just lost brain cells.
    - petertrepan
      
      That’s one of the risk factors for Juggaloism.
- oasisob1
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN-4lX0QyZc
- nowimnothing
  
  The AV club has some really good and respectful write-ups:
  http://www.avclub.com/articles/strange-times-at-the-2012-gathering-of-the-juggalo,83814/
- nettdata
  
  They’re a scientific think tank.
  
  Details here: http://www.cracked.com/blog/learn-your-motherfuckin-science-with-the-icp/
- Douglas Stuart
  
  How do they work?
robotnik

Fuckin’ lawsuits, how do they work?
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

To be fair to the FBI, they confused Juggalos with another legendary gang, the Baseball Furies.
Judas Peckerwood

Clown fight!
http://botaday.com mmrtnt

Mark, you shouldn’t be lifting headlines from the Onion.
Rider

As funny as this is, they do have a bit of tendency towards violence. They also seem to clique up together more then other fan groups.

http://www.ranker.com/list/10-most-violent-juggalo-attacks-ever/michael-gibson
- acerplatanoides
  
  To be fair, so do the police
- giantasterisk
  
  JEE-BUS. That is some scary, f***ed up stuff.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
  
  Given that the FBI has classified organizations as “terrorist” based solely on members having done property damage, the ICP is damned lucky they got away with only being called a criminal gang, frankly.
$19428857

They are suing because they have an unfilled FOIA request that was filed just last month. I’m thinking the lawsuit ain’t going far, but the publicity will be priceless. To paraphrase Vonnegut, you are who you seem to be, so be careful who you seem to be.
LogrusZed

While not a fan of the music or of most of what I’m aware is associated with the Juggalo lifestyle I’m of the opinion that the FBI is really overreaching here while simultaneously ignoring other groups that qualify as much, or possibly more, as epicenters of violent criminality. How about Southern Baptist churches for association with the Klu Klux Klan as well as clinic bombings? The Roman Catholic Church for association with both pedophile rings and the Italian Mafia?

Of course the counter argument is “the churches don’t exist for the sole purpose of organizing these criminal enterprises” or “only some members of these groups are engaged in the criminal activity you mention” and my response is: No shit, how is that not also the case with Insane Clown Posse?

Law enforcement seems to be on a never-ending quest to control and monitor the activities of every small and seemingly isolated group they can get their hands on. I’m not prophesying some sort of absolute fascist regime here, and while I’ll still be voting blue, this administration has done jack shit to step back the jack-booted marching pace which began under the previous president.

First they came for the Juggalos, and I said nothing because people in clown makeup who don’t bathe give me the creeps…
http://anomicofficedrone.com/ AnomicOfficeDrone

Given the dozens of widely reported acts of violence and destruction committed by Juggalos, I’m not worried about this.

While I do think it’s an overreach by the FBI, I won’t be worried until they try to classify Parrot Heads as a gang.
- IronEdithKidd
  
  That’s probably next on the agenda. Right after they get done cooking up a few dozen more preposterous “terrorist” plots.
- Jem Sweeney
  
  I think hippos kill more people than Juggalos, and I say this having lived in a city where a Juggalo went hatchet-happy in a gay bar. They’re irritating but by no means universally dangerous, let alone a threat to national security.
  - http://anomicofficedrone.com/ AnomicOfficeDrone
    
    Being classified as a gang doesn’t mean the FBI thinks they’re Al-Qaeda. It means they believe a significant number of them are engaged in organized criminal activity. It’s also not just killing that determines whether or not a group is a gang. From what I’ve been reading on the topic, it seems that aside from frequently being perpetrators of hate crimes, lots of people involved in cooking, trafficking and distributing meth are Juggalos.
    
    Again, I think it’s an overreach by the FBI, but I get the reasoning.
    - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
      
      Juggalos? On meth? HOW CAN THIS BE?
- Halloween_Jack
  
  Dozens? Link, please.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Does musical brutality count?
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

Gangs don’t kill people. People kill people.
- Rider
  
  yes but people in certain gangs show a predication to kill people.
- Lobster
  
  Gangs cure hiccups.
saint_al

….or the Rainbow Tribe, or Red Hat Ladies…
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  I’m sure its myth but there’s the story of Red hats being banned from malls under anti-gang rules.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    That sounds like paradise to me. They’re kind of obnoxious.
http://twitter.com/JFBD Joseph Duffy

The classification makes a major difference for the “band”. For instance, the “concerts” are now classified as gang rallies, and as such are much more costly for the group to put on.
pupdog

They should check out these guys in my neck of the woods ‘ “LiTTle LeAGueRs” – they’re all walking around with spiked shoes and clubs and projectiles, taking over Pizza Huts and 31Flavors whenever they feel like it…
bcsizemo

Every time an ICP video is posted on BB I end up watching almost all of it. It’s like a train wreck. WHOOP WHOOP…
genotype

It seems like in Albuquerque there’s an ICP-style band playing every freaking week. And the makeup kids rep HARD. They look ridiculous. And after the show, as the makeup is melting off their faces, they look ghastly/hysterical! But, I’ve never seem them start shit.
BlackPanda

HAHAHAHA.
I didn’t think they could get any more ridiculous, even after revealing that their entire act had supposedly been an evangelical Christian plot from the beginning. “Fucking magnets. How do they work?”
BarBarSeven

Well, maybe white kid will know what it’s like to be unfairly targeted by law enforcement just like non-white kids. Seriously.
- http://www.nunoncastors.co.uk/ James
  
  Because that’s the issue here, right?
McMe

Kind of like nova dark age Dead Heads but way more crass and brash!
KWillets

Humans have a certain brain capacity that allows them to maintain social groups of a certain size. The FBI will have a hard time proving that Juggalos have this capacity.
echar

I went to the Gathering of the Juggalos a few years back, and it was a great time. Admittedly ICP is not my favorite music, nor rap while I am at it. However, not once did I feel threatened, everyone was really cool, and respectful. In fact, I’ve felt more threatened by frat boys at clubs and other places. The FBI claiming the whole as a gang is like the Baptist church claiming that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints is a cult.

It’s the pot calling the kettle black. To blow this out even further it’s like Christians calling all Muslims a violent group obsessed on bringing forward the end of the world. This is to say, that there may or may not be a small percentage of criminals who call themselves Juggalos, but not all of them are. From my experience, they are a group of people that like the music, camaraderie, and a good time.

And to the person who made the comment about white kids being harassed by cops. Racist much?
rocketpjs

Well, it should be easy enough to pick the methed out crazy clowns out of a lineup anyway.
Elijah

Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings and company are either weeping or laughing hysterically. Or, possibly, quitting the thug life en masse to become accountants.
- Quiche de Resistance
  
  Who says you have to quit the thug life for financial?
  
  http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/tw2ltp/chappelle-s-show-wu-tang-financial
  
  “You need to diversify your bonds, n____.”
Quiche de Resistance

Not to be pedantic, but pictured is a Juggalette, not a Juggalo.

I am greatly ashamed to admit that I think a lot of those juggalettes are pretty hot.

(Fuckin subconscious, how does it work?)
Brent Kirkham

Is it just me, or was the last guy interviewed (voice only) Gary Busey?
Apart from that, what a bunch a f*cked up people…..
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Anderson/100000065630538 Bill Anderson

If you oppose what the FBI has done to ICP fans, you will want to read about their illegal covert criminal activities directed against me with a search for “New police weapon against homeless” and “Historic coverup of FBI and police crimes currently taking place”.