Brian Steele from Masslive.com recently published an article looking at if the state of Massachusetts sees Juggalos as a gang.  Brian reached out to the local FBI office in Boston, the main FBI headquarters, and several local police departments to discuss the Juggalo gang designation.

Brian Steele found out some very interesting information on this topic. He discovered that many police departments do not consider the Juggalos to be a gang, and the FBI does not believe they commit crimes in Massachusetts. You can read the full article below.

From Masslive.com:

The FBI considers fans of the rap duo Insane Clown Posse to be gang members, but MassLive.com discovered that the so-called Juggalos in Massachusetts are not known to commit organized crimes, and law enforcement officials don’t consider them a threat.

The federal government uses a specific set of criteria to classify a group as a gang. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, among other traits, there have to be three or more members who adopt a collective group identity and commit crimes to enhance their “power, reputation or economic resources.” The state’s definition is similar.

Relying on the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, as well as conversations with law enforcement officials from across the state, MassLive.com discovered that many police departments do not consider the Juggalos to be a gang, and the FBI does not believe they commit crimes here.

Because of the gang designation, some Juggalos claim to have experienced what they call discrimination at the hands of law enforcement agencies and the military, including Johnny LeBlanc of Revere, who said he has been stopped and photographed by police because of the tattoo of Insane Clown Posse’s logo on his forearm. He said it threatens his dream of becoming a police officer.

The band and several fans sued the FBI, but a judge in Michigan ruled against them and tossed the suit out of court last week on a legal technicality. The judge acknowledged, however, that Juggalos are unjustly targeted. The ACLU is appealing the dismissal.

The gang threat assessment uses data from the National Gang Intelligence Center, which conducted surveys of thousands of law enforcement agencies around the country. It lists Juggalos as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang” and as a “street gang” responsible for crimes around the country, ranging from petty theft to felony assault. The report says they are “present” in Massachusetts.

In other states, there are criminal gangs that do identify themselves with Juggalo culture and even use the name. For example, the NGIC says there are gangs in Colorado called Pueblo Clown Posse and A-Town Voodo Clowns; there’s also the Utah-based Juggalo Killers, and a group in Oklahoma calls themselves, simply, Juggalo Gang.

Some are affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood and the Ku Klux Klan, and commit murder and drive-by shootings, the NGIC reports. Others are teenagers who have been accused of trespassing and underage alcohol consumption.

MassLive.com spoke with the FBI’s Boston field office and the national headquarters, who submitted our requests for information to the NGIC. After two days of back-and-forth, the NGIC’s final statement on the matter is that it technically never said Juggalos commit crimes in Massachusetts.

Following these revelations, Juggalos do not appear to meet the criteria to be considered a gang. Although there are more than three (some estimates count a million ICP fans nationwide) and they take on a group identity, the key requirement to be classified as a gang is that the organization must break the law.

The law enforcement agencies who provided data for the 2011 report are listed under the section titled “Acknowledgements.” MassLive.com contacted representatives of every Massachusetts department on that list and asked for information about crimes allegedly committed by Juggalos. Here’s what each of them had to say:

• Boston P.D. – No experience with or knowledge of a gang called the Juggalos
• Chicopee P.D. – No experience with or knowledge of a gang called the Juggalos
• Holyoke P.D. – No experience with or knowledge of a gang called the Juggalos
• Fitchburg P.D. – No experience with or knowledge of a gang called the Juggalos
• Hampden County Sheriff’s Dept. – Juggalos are considered a gang, partly because of the FBI designation, but also because of their shared cultural identities and symbols like the Insane Clown Posse logo. A representative said fewer than five Juggalos have ever been incarcerated at the Hampden County Correctional Center. When asked if the convicts had committed their crimes to further the Juggalos’ organization or message (a key component of the definition of a gang), the representative said it was unclear because they refused to answer such questions
• Haverhill P.D. – Two phone messages left with Media Relations were not returned
• Lowell P.D. – The Crime Analysis division referred all questions to Captain Kelly Richardson, who did not return a phone message
• Massachusetts State Police – A spokesman told MassLive.com that no information would be available until sometime this week, but state police anti-gang literature does list Juggalos as a gang. A training document on street gangs is careful to point out that most Juggalos are law-abiding citizens and “simply part of the ICP experience.” It contains no actual information about criminal activity. Repeated phone calls to the Gang Unit, based in Devens, were not answered
• Springfield P.D. – No experience with or knowledge of a gang called the Juggalos
• Worcester P.D. – Two phone messages left with Media Relations were not returned. One phone message left with a sergeant was not returned

Another report from the NGIC, also from 2011, says there was a Juggalo gang in Ludlow, but offers no specific details or evidence. Sgt. Michael Brennan of the Ludlow Police Department said the town hasn’t had a problem with Juggalos, at least not in the 15 years he’s been with the department.

Michael J. Steinberg, legal director of the ACLU of Michigan, is leading Insane Clown Posse’s lawsuit.

“Juggalos are to ICP as Deadheads are to the Grateful Dead,” Steinberg told MassLive.com in a phone interview. “Juggalos are music fans and they unite around a love of ICP and they provide support for one another, and they come together and consider themselves family.”

“As with Bruins fans … there are bad apples,” said Steinberg. “Sometimes people commit crimes wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, but that doesn’t mean the FBI can brand all Red Sox fans as a loosely affiliated gang.”

He expects the appeal of the lawsuit’s dismissal to be decided within a year. In the meantime, the Juggalos’ “First Amendment right to freedom of expression will be choked.”

“The federal government doesn’t have to like the music of ICP, and they don’t have to understand what makes Juggalos tick,” Steinberg said, “but that doesn’t give them the right to punish them.”

Websites:

• masslive.com