Juggalos and the Criminalization of Style
Mark Parsons feels such a kinship with the horrorcore Michigan-based rap duo Insane Clown Posse and its dedicated, tattooed fan base “of Faygo-swilling, facepaint-wearing Juggalo minions” that he operates a trucking firm called “Juggalo Express LLC,” named after what he and most of his associates call “the family.” He owns and drives a semi-truck emblazoned with the group’s seminal and violent “hatchetman” logo.
Last summer, he and a company trainee were driving it along a stretch of interstate on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee, when they were pulled over by a state trooper at a weigh station. The trooper demanded to know whether Parsons was a “Juggalo,” a group he categorized as a “gang.” Then, the officer detained Parsons, searched the truck, and questioned him “for about an hour.” After discovering nothing, the officer released Parsons. No ticket or citation was issued, and the officer never indicated “any reasonable suspicion” for the search, besides the logo of Parsons’ favorite band.
A new federal lawsuit filed against the FBI and Department of Justice this week by Parsons and three other Juggalos (all represented by the ACLU) along with the band members, Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler (known respectively as Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope), challenges the Juggalos’ classification in the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang” and outlines several other incidents of Juggalo profiling. The lawsuit argues that the group’s criminalization has violated constitutional rights, including freedoms of expression, association, and due process. According to the lawsuit:
"This gang designation has caused real harm to ordinary Juggalos from coast to coast. Defendants widely published the designation to state and local police agencies through an online law enforcement database, as well as through reports and other means. As a result, state and local police routinely stop, detain, interrogate, photograph and document people like Plaintiffs, who do not have any connections to gangs, because they have exercised their First Amendment rights to express their identity as Juggalos by displaying Juggalo symbols."
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/juggalos-criminalization-style-72533/
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http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/611916/insane-clown-posse-fbi.pdf...(T)he FBI’s Salt Lake City office conducted a 14-month investigation into the horrorcore duo’s fan base. The file identifies Juggalos and Juggalettes as a “violent street gang” numbering in the thousands, whose members “sometimes paint their faces to look like wicked clowns” and “continue the dress by carrying small axes...”
Even if I didn't think that ICP sucks like a vacuum cleaner factory (which I do), I will never forgive them for firing Biohazard as their opening act just because more than half the audience would leave after when they were playing. But that might explain why neither the rap nor rock communities acknowledges them, never mind have offered support. Payback's a female canine, isn't it, guys?
rocktivity
