We Are Family

Insane Clown Posse and a few of their fans are suing — to get the FBI to stop labeling them a gang:

The suit stems from the FBI’s National Gang Intelligence Center classification of Juggalos as “a loosely-organized hybrid gang,” one with multiple affiliations. Lawyers for ICP and the ACLU claim that the profiling of Juggalos — based on their distinctive clown makeup and Hatchetman tattoos — lacks reasonable suspicion of gang affiliation. As a result, the “unconstitutionally vague” designation has since intimidated many from expressing themselves and denied them protection from unreasonable searches, according to the filing.

“The FBI had the impact they wanted: they scared people away from attending concerts and from affiliating together for the purpose of listening to music,” Saura Sahu, an attorney assisting the ACLU of Michigan, tells Rolling Stone. He cited the decline in turnout at the latest Gathering of the Juggalos, ICP’s annual five-day festival, where police last August arrested numerous people on drug-related offenses outside the event.

“We don’t fit in anywhere,” Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J tells Rolling Stone. “And when people don’t understand you, people fear you. All we’re trying to do is be like the Stephen King of music. We like to tell horror stories.”

I’m no ICP fan, unless perhaps they’ve recorded some of Cole Porter’s stuff and I’m just not aware of it yet, but clearly the FBI has overstepped here.