In today's WTF news...

[i_amthecosmos]

Insane Clown Posse is suing the FBI for listing Juggalos as a gang.

No, really. They're going to sue the Feds. And you know, they should. This whole "ICP are leaders of a gang" thing is not only untrue, but it hurts the band financially because they can't sell their t-shirts at places like Hot Topic anymore.

I have no love in my heart for ICP and their dumber fans, but you can't call them all gang members for liking a group. It doesn't matter that it's a shitty group, either. Every time the FBI interacts with pop culture it's generally hilarious and wrongheaded. Or it's funny after the fact, anyway. Let's hope this latest bullshit blows over soon.

Comments

[moodwriter.livejournal.com]

I have no love for the band or its fans either, but this is ridiculous. Adam's fans are often crazy and move like the mob, should we be labeled as gang members as well?

I don't even know what to say. /o\

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

ICP fans aren't all thug-acting either. There's fans that are smart and are in on the joke when it comes to ICP. But they do have a large amount of fans who just use being a fan to justify bad behavior.

Yeah, if the FBI starts tracking fan groups, they've got a lot of crazy ones to choose from.

[katzb101.livejournal.com]

Oh jeez, really no love for ICP either, but this just stoopid.

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

It's so tempting to say "Fucking gangs, how do they work?" here. See, I said it.

:D

[moirariordan.livejournal.com]

how exactly are they defining "gang"? because juggalos do commit a lot of crime. like, it's ridiculous. but they're not like, an organized group who does it on purpose. it's just, they're more likely to be idiotic criminals than other people, just like anchors on fox news are more likely to be liars than other anchors. so i could see local law enforcement doing this, because if they're acting like a gang, they're a gang. it doesn't matter if they're borrowing their iconology from a band.

but to do it on a national scale like the FBI is kind of ~side eye-able. right on par with saying kids who play video games are across the board more violent.

it's a cloudy issue, though, and i can understand why people would be torn. on one hand, ICP's whole image, music, lyrics, whatever is just incredibly violent and ridiculous, so of course they attract fans who are violent and ridiculous. on the other it's not anyone's place to stop them from doing that, and even if they try there's going to be another band that rises to take their place. so law enforcement has to just deal with the consequences, but where do you draw the line between protecting people and respecting them? there's no cut and dry answer.

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

The 2011 gang report the FBI did was the first to list them as a gang, and it called them "loosely organized" and "atypical". Meaning it has no real organization at all.

There has been the occasional very serious crime associated with Juggalos. The one that comes to mind is a murder in my home state of Alabama. The people involved took pics of themselves with the clown makeup and weapons before killing someone over a pathetic amount of money. But correlation=/=causation, you know.

There's fans that do realize that ICP area actually older dudes with families (they're even born-again Christians!) and this is all an act. But a lot of people don't seem to have gotten that memo. I guess it's just that a lot of people take everything literally, so that's what they do with ICP.

Oh,and ICP themselves are against their law-breaking, gang-like fans. They call them "Jugga-ho's".