The alt-clowns continue the fight to clear their name from the FBI’s “gang” label.
Insane Clown Posse are planning a Juggalo March on Washington in September to protest the FBI’s classification of their fanbase as a gang.
The march, which is set for September 16 on the National Mall, is intended “to make a collective statement from the Juggalo Family to the world about what we are and what we are not,” the band wrote on their website yesterday (January 25).
“We are not a gang. We’re a family,” they added.
In 2011, the FBI’s National Gang Threat Assessment Report classed the band’s rowdy, clown-themed army of followers as a “criminal organisation formed on the street” and a “loosely-organized hybrid gang.”
The duo took out a lawsuit against the FBI in 2012 to receive the documents that led the organization to classify the Juggalos as a gang, but the FBI filed a motion to dismiss the suit the following August.
They tried the legal route again in 2014, suing both the FBI and the Justice Department for what they described as an “unwarranted and unlawful decision,” but found themselves back at square one – so now they are taking their fight to the streets.
“As many of you are no doubt personally aware, the FBI’s inclusion of Juggalos as a ‘gang’ has resulted in hundreds if not thousands of people subjected to various forms of discrimination, harassment, and profiling simply for identifying as a Juggalo,” the band told fans.
“Whether that person is applying for a job, trying to adopt a child, join the armed forces, or attempting to acquire housing … their name may pop up as being “gang-affiliated,” even if that person has never been charged with any kind of crime.
“This is the day we not only march on our nation’s capital, but we will also be throwing a FREE concert to further display the collective power of the Juggalo Family.”
ICP have lined up 2 Live Crew, Vanilla Ice, Necro, and many more for the event at Bristow, Virginia’s Jiffy Lube Amphitheater, which will take place on the evening of September 16. “Rest assured if there is a band out there that has Juggalo love, they’ve been invited,” they said.
Back in 2013, the pair were sued for sexual harassment by Andrea Pellegrini, their former attorney and publicist with the pair’s Psychopathic Records label. The 32-year old’s suit claimed, among other things, that she was gifted a “large sex toy” by the pair following a break-up, and was regularly labelled a “bitch” at work.
