--- title: Watch Insane Clown Posse Explain their March on Washington description: The rap duo will march to protest an FBI classification that their fans, called Juggalos, are a gang. Here, they explain their case canonical: https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/ author: Nate Hopper article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-15T20:45:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:51:49.551Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Watch: Insane Clown Posse Talks to TIME About Its FBI Lawsuit og:description: The Justice Department has declared the clown-faced rap duo's fans a gang og:url: https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd60655b1b3ddd13a/6988de068fd2ee969d358e0a/insane-clown-posse-icp-fbi-juggalo-juggalos-washington-march-concert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Insane Clown Posse og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: Insane Clown Posse Talks to TIME About Its FBI Lawsuit twitter:description: The Justice Department has declared the clown-faced rap duo's fans a gang twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd60655b1b3ddd13a/6988de068fd2ee969d358e0a/insane-clown-posse-icp-fbi-juggalo-juggalos-washington-march-concert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch: Insane Clown Posse Talks to TIME About Its FBI Lawsuit > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=c9933467-f2b1-4466-bb1f-43a886f0f66e&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Why Insane Clown Posse is Marching on Washington [Watch (HLS stream): Why Insane Clown Posse is Marching on Washington](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qKPFbyW2.m3u8) (3:25)  _Published 2017-09-15. The Insane Clown Posse describe why they put together the March of the Juggalos._  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Sep 15, 2017 8:45 PM UTC The Insane Clown Posse describe why they put together the March of the Juggalos.  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Sep 15, 2017 8:45 PM UTC On September 16, the multi-platinum, clown-faced rap group [Insane Clown Posse](http://time.com/4521464/insane-clown-posse-killer-clowns/) and its fans, who call themselves Juggalos, will march on the National Mall to protest the FBI. In 2011, the [Justice Department](http://www.npr.org/documents/JusticeandJuggalos.pdf) declared that Juggalos comprised a “loosely organized hybrid gang” akin to the infamous Bloods and Crips that was “rapidly expanding into many US communities.” The DOJ reported 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.” Insane Clown Posse’s frontmen, stage-named Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, dispute the accusation and classification, which they say has caused some of their fans to lose jobs or custody cases. With the support of the ACLU of Michigan (the group hails from Detroit), Insane Clown Posse has filed a lawsuit against the Department and the FBI. While the march coincides with a [pro–Donald Trump rally](https://www.motherofallrallies.com/), the group has no explicit political affiliations. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope say they oppose discrimination of any kind. The two men, wearing their makeup, told TIME that they hope the march will help change the government’s position. ## Transcript In 2011, the FBI released something called a gang assessments list. And what it was, was a top ten list of like you know I guess the most notorious gangs in the country. You have like the Cripps, and the Bloods, and MS- 13, and the Aryan Nation. Any Juggalos were on there. Now people that follow our music call themselves Juggalos. This is not a name we gave them, it's a name that organically came up from the people. Juggalos all wear the same thing. A lot of them wear this logo, which is our record company logo. Which also sort of doubles as a symbol for Juggalo. This is no different than an AC / DC tattoo, or Prince tattoo. This is a tattoo. You could have that tattoo and you'd be entered into a gang database. And if you're sentenced for a crime, you're sentenced as a gang member, because you're waving this flag. And it's more than crimes. People are losing their jobs. People are getting fired. For being a juggalo because your employers are like, that's a gang. This is America. I can't have gang members working here. You could be in a custody battle for children, and their ex- spouse or whoever they have this child with, they could be the most upstanding citizen ever, but they're a juggalo? They're a gang member. The just is like, that's a gang. You're a gang member. Your spouse's attorney can say, Your Honor this person is a gang member in the eyes of the government. And it's true. Our hopes are to let as many people in this country know that we're not okay with the gang label. Because if we don't do something about it, and I'm not talking about us, me and Shaggy. I'm talking about the people, the American citizens that are buying our music and being punished for it in these ways. If they don't do something about it. If they don't stand up, and march, and say we're not a gang There might as well be a gang. We got songs about killing. Absolutely, if you want to end the sentence there. But the sentence continues, we have songs about killing people who beat their children. You know what I mean? And there are people growing up in households with a step dad that beat them and those kids have those sorts of thoughts and rages in them. They are not acting on them. But they definitely have that sort of anger in them, like ooh. And our music is outlet. We sold 8 million albums. How you just gonna discriminate against 8 million people like that and say they're a gang member? When they're all walks of life within the 8 million. If you're looking for them, you're going to find everything. Cops, politicians, everything in that 8 million. You know what I mean? Doctors Counselors. You're also gonna find murderers, and what not. You'll find- Everything bad you're looking for too. It's gonna be in that 8. 000. 000. And the question is, what are they doing to us is discrimination? And that's the one thing you can be sure in saying Clown Posse is against. Any sort of discrimination. We just wanna make our point. Our point is just, to march, You don't say it as peaceful as we can. You don't say it as loud and proud as we can about our cause. Anything else that's going on that day we don't give a **** about. We know the FBI's not gonna come out and say, Our fault. Jugglers really aren't a gang. We kind of messed up here. We just wanna bring a spotlight to this situation. To everybody that may not know or may not have cared before, because it's Juggalos and Insane Clown Posse, we just want to bring it to a spotlight because it's not just us that have a problem, it's everybody that has a problem with it, that we're not a gang. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/"},"headline":"Watch: Insane Clown Posse Talks to TIME About Its FBI Lawsuit","datePublished":"2017-09-15T20:45:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:51:49.551Z","description":"The Justice Department has declared the clown-faced rap duo's fans a gang","url":"https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/","keywords":["justice","politics","Music","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd60655b1b3ddd13a/6988de068fd2ee969d358e0a/insane-clown-posse-icp-fbi-juggalo-juggalos-washington-march-concert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nate Hopper","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd60655b1b3ddd13a/6988de068fd2ee969d358e0a/insane-clown-posse-icp-fbi-juggalo-juggalos-washington-march-concert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Insane Clown Posse","caption":"Insane Clown Posse","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/","name":"Watch: Insane Clown Posse Talks to TIME About Its FBI Lawsuit"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Insane Clown Posse is Marching on Washington","description":"The Insane Clown Posse describe why they put together the March of the Juggalos.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qKPFbyW2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-09-15T17:04:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qKPFbyW2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/","duration":"PT3M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4943969/insane-clown-posse-march-washington-icp-fbi/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```