Saturday, November 12, 2011

FBI and Juggalos

So a new story has been released that has taken me a week to process my feelings on.  The FBI has decided to label Juggalos as an official gang in their latest gang threat assessment.  Here is what they say about Juggalos:
 "The Juggalos, a loosely-organized hybrid gang, are rapidly expanding into many US communities. Although recognized as a gang in only four states, many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence. Law enforcement officials in at least 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo sub-sets, according to NGIC reporting."

  They go on to describe the crimes committed by Juggalos as this:

 "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."

Then they further go on to say that:

 "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 sub-sets are comprised of transient or homeless individuals"

  So looking at their assessment it is safe to assume that all Juggalos are Transient, drug using, who engage in such horrific criminal activity that we cannot be trusted.  Now anyone who knows a Juggalo/Juggalette will be the first to tell you we are nothing like the FBI has made us out to be.  As a general population we are peaceful outcasts who want nothing more than to fit in.  That is what the "family" gives us.  A good example is the Gathering.  In 2010 Tila Tequila was invited to the Gathering and proceeded to get a lot of crap thrown at her, everything from rocks, to trash, to feces (supposedly).  So this year the media ascended on the Gathering in hopes of having a violent story to tell the world about how terrible we are.  The problem was that after 4 days they had nothing to report on.  No fights, arrests, deaths, fires, violence, etc.  They had nothing to talk about except how nice the event was.  How peaceful we were.  How they were welcomed even though for the most part Juggalos hate the way the media reports on us.  That speaks volumes in my opinion.


  I would ask the FBI or any law enforcement agency to gather thousands of actual gang members, aka Bloods, Crips, MS13, etc. in one location for 4 days and see how much violence and other things actually occur.  Then maybe they would have a better perspective of who we are.  Do I feel we are all innocent, hell no.  But there are bad apples in every bunch.  Every group has a few people that do not believe the same things or do the same things.  That is what makes every group unique.  Every subset in music has bad people.  Every genre of music has fans that do not do the right things.  This alone has never made the FBI classify them as gang members.  But for Juggalos the few bad seeds have tainted our image permanently.  Why is that?  Why must we be singled out? 


  I wrote a blog earlier this year about other bands with rabid fans that states my opinions about this topic.  Unfortunately this blog is only my opinions.  I am actively trying to make a difference and maybe change the perception of the family.  But until the entire family adopts this mentality I feel like we will never change the image.  That alone will not stop me from doing the right things while wearing the hatchet proudly.  Through actions we can change perceptions.  Through deeds we can change lives.  Just because we are outcasts does not mean we need to exclude others from the family.  Welcome everyone and love them as your brothers and sisters.  This is a positive movement and we can change the world. 


MMWCL,
  Juggalotus