The FBI Called Their Fans GANG MEMBERS…It RUINED Their LIVES

The story behind Insane Clown Posse and their fans being labeled as gang members by law enforcement in 2011.

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In 2011, the FBI released its National Gang Threat Assessment, and tucked inside, next to the Bloods, the Crips and MS-13, was a group nobody expected: the Juggalos. That’s the fanbase of Insane Clown Posse, the face-painted Detroit rap duo known for horrorcore, Faygo showers and “whoop whoop.” The report called them a “loosely-organized hybrid gang,” and almost overnight, a Hatchetman sticker or tattoo could get you treated like a gang member.

This is the story of how Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope and their fans took on the federal government, and why that label followed them for years.

In this video, we go back to before the FBI got involved, when ABC’s Nightline sat down with ICP in 2010 and an Arizona detective warned police across the country about Juggalos. Then we get into the 2011 report and what happened next. Fans said they were pulled over for ICP stickers, questioned about gang ties, and photographed for police databases. One Army recruit was told to remove his Juggalo tattoos or be denied. A soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan worried the label could get him kicked out. Even ICP’s 2012 Hallowicked show got pushed out of the Royal Oak Music Theatre and had to move to the Fillmore Detroit.

So ICP fought back. First came a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to see the FBI’s evidence. Then, in 2014, ICP teamed up with the ACLU of Michigan and four Juggalos to sue the Department of Justice and the FBI, arguing the gang label violated their First Amendment rights to free speech and free association. The case, Parsons v. U.S. Department of Justice, was thrown out, brought back to life by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, thrown out again, and finally ended in December 2017.

Along the way, the Juggalos did something no one saw coming. On September 16, 2017, they marched on Washington, D.C., on the same day and in the same place as a pro-Trump rally, carrying signs like “Music Is Not A Crime.” We’ll also look at what happened to the individual fans, whether anyone ever got the label removed, and what the courts actually decided, which wasn’t what most people think.

It’s a story about clowns versus the federal government, cheap soda versus constitutional law, and a question that still hasn’t been settled: where’s the line between a music community and a criminal gang, and who gets to draw it?

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Written by Rock N' Roll True Stories