We admit that though we’ve had our fair share of laughs at their expense, the Insane Clown Posse’s fan base, the Juggalos, scares us a little bit. But are Juggalos really a national threat? Well, apparently the FBI believes so.
In their 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, the FBI has listed the Juggalos as one of the criminal gangs they are closely monitoring. The report describes the ICP fan base as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang” that are rapidly growing (although only four States officially recognize them as a gang). The report further had the following to say about the Juggalos as a gang:
“Most crimes committed by Juggalos are sporadic, disorganized, individualistic, and often involve simple assault, personal drug use and possession, petty theft, and vandalism. However, open source reporting suggests that a small number of Juggalos are forming more organized subsets and engaging in more gang-like criminal activity, such as felony assaults, thefts, robberies, and drug sales. Social networking websites are a popular conveyance for Juggalo sub-culture to communicate and expand.
Juggalos’ disorganization and lack of structure within their groups, coupled with their transient nature, makes it difficult to classify them and identify their members and migration patterns. Many criminal Juggalo subsets are comprised of transient or homeless individuals, according to law enforcement reporting. Most Juggalo criminal groups are not motivated to migrate based upon traditional needs of a gang. However, law enforcement reporting suggests that Juggalo criminal activity has increased over the past several years and has expanded to several other states. Transient, criminal Juggalo groups pose a threat to communities due to the potential for violence, drug use/sales, and their general destructive and violent nature.”
The report also highlights two crimes involving Juggalo members, including two suspected Juggalo associates charged with beating up a homeless man in 2010, and one suspected Juggalo member that shot and wounded a couple in 2011 (both in Washington). Like we said before, we may be baffled by the Juggalos and their odd behavior at times (though we have a pretty clear understanding as to why this happened). However, it seems a little extreme to compare them to other violent gangs mentioned in the report. Who knows, maybe this will lead to a Law And Order spin off series doing an episode involving Juggalos. Oh wait, that already happened as well.
[via Wired and The Huffington Post]
