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Artist News Legal
Insane Clown Posse appeal dismissal of lawsuit against FBI
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 10 July 2014
Insane Clown Posse have filed an appeal against the decision to dismiss their case against the US Department Of Justice and the FBI.
As previously reported, the lawsuit relates to the FBI’s 2011 ‘National Gang Threat Assessment: Emerging Trends’ report, which listed ‘Juggalos’ – the collective name of the rap duo’s fans – as a “hybrid gang”. ICP and a number of fans who claim to have been affected negatively by their association to the band as a result of the report sued, re-filing their case in January having hired a new legal team from the American Civil Liberties Union Of Michigan and law firm Miller Canfield.
Last month, the DOJ called for the judge presiding over the case to dismiss it, on the grounds that it cannot be held responsible for how information in the FBI’s report is used, and that Juggalos were dropped from the list of gangs in the report last year anyway. Last week, the judge complied with that request, agreeing that the fans named in the lawsuit had suffered due to law enforcement agencies and the US Army, rather than the FBI.
In a statement, ACLU Of Michigan’s Legal Director Michael Steinberg said: “The only way to remedy this injustice for all innocent Juggalos is to start with the root of the problem – the FBI’s arbitrary and erroneous branding of hundreds of thousands of music fans as gang members. There is no doubt that the FBI created this problem and the solution begins there as well. Otherwise, we’ll be playing whack-o-mole to stop local law enforcement agencies from discriminating against our clients, when the agencies are just following the FBI’s lead”.
The duo’s Joseph Bruce, aka Violent J, added: “This is not the end – we’ll keep fighting to clear the Juggalo family name. There has never been – and will never be – a music fanbase 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”.
The court has not yet responded to the appeal.
