The Place Where Ludington Talks
ICP BIN EIN JUGGALO
On June 26, 1963, a little over 50 years ago, John F Kennedy stood before the German people in West Berlin shortly after the Berlin Wall had been erected and mouthed the famous words "Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich Bin Ein, Berliner" (German for "I am a Berlin native"). It was a significant gesture in the Cold War that was getting a lot warmer at the time.
On Wednesday, January 8, 2014, the ACLU of Michigan, along with the Detroit music duo Insane Clown Posse (ICP) and four fans of that group (known as "Juggalos"), filed a federal lawsuit claiming that their constitutional rights to expression and association were violated when the U.S. government wrongly and arbitrarily classified the entire fan base as a “hybrid” criminal gang.
"The Juggalos are fighting for the basic American right to freely express who they are, to gather and share their appreciation of music, and to discuss issues that are important to them without fear of being unfairly targeted and harassed by police. Branding hundreds of thousands of music fans as gang members based on the acts of a few individuals defies logic and violates our most cherished of constitutional rights.", said Michael J. Steinberg, ACLU of Michigan legal director.
In 2011, Juggalos were officially identified as a "hybrid gang" by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), when the fan group was included in the DOJ’s third National Gang Threat Assessment. As a result of this unjustified designation, “individual Juggalos are suffering improper investigations, detentions and other denials of their personal rights at the hands of government officials” or denied employment according to the lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. These are some typical juggalos:
Plaintiff Brandon Bradley, a self-identified Juggalo, has on numerous occasions been stopped and detained by police in California. Each time, the officer has wrongly accused Brandon of being in a gang and has interrogated him about being a Juggalo and about his affiliated tattoos and clothing.
Plaintiff Mark Parsons, Juggalo, owns and operates a trucking business called the Juggalo Express and personally drives a truck with the 'hatchetman' logo of ICP on the side of it. He has been stopped, searched, and questioned by police solely because of his logo associating him with Juggalos.
Plaintiff Scott Gandy, another juggalo, was told he would not be accepted in the Army because his ICP tattoo was a gang symbol.
Plaintiff Robert Hellin. a corporal in the US Army since 2008 and Juggalo before that, is fearful of reprimand or discharge because of the ICP tattoos he has had visible since he joined, now that they have become known as a gang symbol.
All four non-ICP plaintiffs swear that they have never been affiliated with a gang, but challenge the federal government’s decision to designate a musical band’s supporters as a criminal gang. They are probably not unlike the group of kids below, that identify with the group as Juggalos, but likely aren't gang-affiliated.
The two members of Insane Clown Posse are part of the suit claiming that a concert in Royal Oak, Michigan was cancelled due to the Royal Oak Police citing the gang designation of ICP as per the FBI which made the organizer unwilling to sponsor it. Overall, the plaintiffs are seeking to regain their First and Fifth Amendment rights, to be expunged from the hybrid gang designation and to claim five counts of the Administrative Procedure Act have been violated.
Under full disclosure, I viewed a few videos to see what the problems were and checked out the lyrics to their songs. There is a lot of vulgar words, and some violence depicted in the lyrics. There really isn't a lot of material I see that has much redeeming, socially-constructive value. The running hatchetman that the group uses as their symbol is not a peace symbol. As for their music, it is not totally lacking talent, but I doubt any of the songs would be on my frequent playlists, however to be fair, it has earned them two platinum and five gold records in their career.
But one thing I never noticed was any sort of gang mentality among the rhythms which creeps into a lot of modern 'urban' music. The make-up and music actually had me reminiscent of a band from my youth that achieved some popularity among the kids, and some critical acclaim, the band KISS who peaked in popularity around 1978:
The similarities are striking: the weird suits, the face paint the weird antics of the singers, the bold lyrics, the rabid fans (KISS Army, etc.) who dressed up as their favorite KISS performer. The major difference seems to be that they are about thirty years apart. In the late 1970's, we had a few KISS idolizers at my school and they were far from gangbangers.
The biggest fan around Scottville was the son of two teachers at the school named Jim Keenan, who had a lot of paraphernalia and would draw KISS emblems and characters routinely. He went on to front a band of his own named TOOL, and achieved his own degree of critical success in glam rock. He was far from a gang member, he was on the wrestling team, the school newspaper and he even went into the military. Weird, but harmless, as was everyone else who were fans of the band it seemed to me at the time.
If the FBI back then would have claimed the fans of KISS were part of a hybrid gang, even the ones who organized into fan groups, it would have been laughable. They seemed about as harmless and as criminally-minded as Trekkies and Civil War re-enactors, and would have been more likely to join a Glee Club rather than smoke who knows what on the corner and bully lunch money from the rest of the school population. As for Maynard, he would incorporate his love for the band of KISS into his own band with some very odd variants. Instead of leading a gang, he's running a winery and getting plenty of residuals.
Like KISS and many other bands that have come and gone that have chose the theatrics of the stage over strict musical craftsmanship, ICP has a schtick that has earned them a following over the years, and that following has not been shown to be gang oriented. This statement is reinforced by a FOIA request the ACLU sent to the FBI to find out what led them to put Juggalos (ICP's fan base) in the hybrid gang category, and discovered it had no sound foundation to associate them with any criminal gang activity.
Some Juggalos may have a gang affiliation, but it is likely to be no more than the same level as society at large. It does somehow seem wrong for the FBI to lump Juggalos into the realm of gangdom with the increased scrutiny inherent, just because they associate with a band and enjoy their music or style.
So I wish you good luck, Juggalos and Insane Clowns, in your efforts to drop the onus of criminality the FBI has forced unto you. As Joseph Bruce (aka Violent J), a member of ICP said at a press conference: "It’s time for the FBI to come to its senses and recognize that Juggalos are not a gang but a worldwide family united by the love of music. There has never been—and will never be—a music fan base quite like Juggalos, and while it is easy to fear what one does not understand, discrimination and bigotry against any group of people is just plain wrong and un-American."
The Ludington Torch salute to Juggalos and all other oppressed criminal gangs and hybrid gangs that are not.
Views: 1013
© 2026 Created by XLFD.
Powered by
