Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
DETROIT — The headline on the U.S. Marshal’s press release announced, “Gang Member Removed from New Mexico’s Most Wanted.”
Turns out, 20-year-old Mark Anthony Carlson was wanted for missing probation. And oh yes, more importantly, he is a “Juggalo,” a fan of the Detroit-based rap group, Insane Clown Posse, reports the Village Voice.
And according to the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, Juggalos are a “criminal organization formed on the street,” lumping them with Crips and Bloods.
“Because of their multiple affiliations, ethnicities, migratory nature, and nebulous structure, hybrid gangs are difficult to track, identify, and target as they are transient and continuously evolving,” the FBI report reads.
The Village Voice noted in its story about the Juggalo:
Initially, this seemed amusingly ludicrous, another example of a federal agency looking foolish for its cultural ineptitude. “The FBI has recently had difficulty distinguishing ordinary American Muslims from terrorists,” wrote Wired’s Spencer Ackerman, who first wrote about the FBI’s Juggalo gang-list inclusion. “Now it appears it has a similar problem distinguishing teenage fads from criminal conspiracies.” Except that a seemingly silly judgment tucked away in a federal document is beginning to have tangible consequences.
