Music

Insane Clown Posse suing the FBI over gang allegations

by Tyler Munro

Remember when we told you that the FBI had classified Juggalos as a ‘loosely organized hybrid gang’? Insane Clown Posse sure does, and they think the allegations have gone too far.

“Just because you like a music group, doesn’t make you a criminal,” said Shaggy 2 Dope at the group’s annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival.

“We’re not attacking the FBI, but they got this wrong. The Juggalos are not a gang, and that needs to be fixed,” added Violent J.

Not attacking the FBI, no. But they are suing them. Watch them make the announcement above and make note of one thing: you might not like their music, or their fans, or even their weird turn as WCW wrestlers, but they’ve certainly made an attempt to distance themselves from the more violent tendencies perpetuated by a small fraction of their fans. Violent J acknowledged this, albeit in a weird, long-winded analogy that inexplicably attacked late country singer Conway Twitty.

“I promise you that fuckin’ Conway Twitty’s fuckin’ fans… a great deal of them are probably pedophiles, racists, all types of shit,” he said on stage. “Out of the millions of people that buy Conway Twitty, I promise you there’s all kinds of sick shit in there, but nobody’s just saying all Conway Twitty fans are all pedophiles.”

He eventually made his point, though. “Just like I’m sure there are Juggalos in some cities that are in gangs. That’s fine, I understand that. But you can’t just say all Juggalos are a gang.”

And he has a point. For better or worse, the Insane Clown Posse have created an empire that pits them atop a food chain of mass merchandise, and they’ve made a career out of standing together with their fans through thick and thin. Because of the new gang-affiliation, they say stores like Hot Topic have stopped selling their merchandise. They say it’s made their club shows almost impossible to ensure.

Naturally, they’ve hired a lawyer, who in turn has started a website. If you’re down with the clown and the law’s been pushing you around because of it, submit your stories to JuggalosFightBack.com—attorney Howard Hertz wants to hear them.

“We are seeking individual Juggalos whose rights have been violated as a result of the mistaken belief that they are a ‘gang member,'” he said in a statement released earlier. “If you or someone you know has suffered any negative consequence with an employer, governmental representative, including law enforcement, border patrol, airline security, or other local, state or federal governmental agency or employee as a result of your status as a Juggalo, we want to know about it.”

“In a perfect world, I hope that organizations will stand up and say, ‘I hate ICP, I don’t give a fuck about them or the Juggalos, but this is fucked up.’ I hope that enough pressure goes on the FBI and enough bigwigs take our side in this and actually say, ‘Look, [it doesn’t matter] who they are, it’s still fucked up what’s happening to them,'” said Violent J in a candid interview with the Village Voice. “And then we actually get taken off the list.”