The band Insane Clown Posse (ICP) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan(ACLU) have appealed the dismissal of their case against the FBI, who made gang allegations against ICL fans, known as “Juggalos”, earlier this year.
Back in January, ICP made their original case against the FBI, who in 2011 classified Juggalos a “loosely-organized hybrid gang”, as reported by TheCelebrityCafe.com. In the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, subsets of Juggalos were said to engage in crimes such as theft, felony assaults, and drug distribution according to Wired.
In their case ICP claimed that the constitutional rights of their fan’s rights to self expression and association were being violated. However, in the end the judge dismissed the case, because while Juggalos might have been harmed by the law enforcement and the U.S. Army, they had not been directly harmed by the FBI as reported by the ACLU website.
The ACLU and ICP are now attempting to appeal this decision, defending the fans of the group and their right to express themselves. A member of ICP, Joseph Bruce, known as Violent J, spoke with the ACLU, saying, “There has never been—and will never be—a music fan base quite like Juggalos, and while it is easy to fear what one does not understand, discrimination and bigotry against any group of people is just plain wrong and un-American.”
Photo courtesy of INFGoff.com