A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about “Juggalos” using the recent case of two teens who have been accused of attempting to kidnap a 5-year-old as a jumping off point. Having a degree in Comparative Religion I I did what I always do when I come across some interesting social phenomenon and over research the subject. I also received comments from several Juggalos which kept me interested and focused on the subject. I have become convinced through my research that the Utah authorities are quietly re-enacting the poor police work and bad intelligence gathering that characterized the Satanic Panic of the 1990s.
I know that this will put me at odds with many crime bloggers, some of whom aren’t big fans of Juggalos which I understand, but it is my belief that the police in Utah are making the same mistakes police made in the 90s which not only sent many innocent people to jail like in the McMartin Pre-school case but forever tainted other cases in the minds of the public, ala The West Memphis Three.
The mistake I’m alluding to may seem minor to some but I put forward that it is critical to understanding why it’s entirely possible that the two teens accused may be innocent of kidnapping (though not of drug possession) and the exaggerated police and the public perception of the danger presented by I.C.P. fans is largely due to them being fed false information. From the September 8th report:
West Valley police captain Tom McLachlan said this group calls themselves ICP.
“We consider them a gang,†said McLachlan. “Members of the group have been in trouble with the law, they run together and we treat them like a gang.â€
Look, you don’t need a doctorate to know Juggalos are no more a gang than Goths, Emo kids and Wiccans are. But all those groups have been listed as gangs by various police departments. Why?
It’s because Police departments rely on “experts” whose credentials they have no interest in verifying and worse they allow those same experts to vomit forth their inane contentions to the public. Supposed expert Dale Griffis forever polluted the West Memphis Three case with his complete and utter lack of knowledge of the occult. There is no part of his testimony in that case that is factually accurate and in fact his 1980s era cult handbook (widely circulated to law enforcement) reads suspiciously like a Dennis Wheatley novel edited by Montague Summers. No wonder then his most recent work is an Alex Jonesian rehash of the debunked and discredited C.I.A. Mind Control Sex Slave theory.
In other words Dale Griffins, like Ted Gunderson before him, was a crank who was able to insinuate himself into and corrupt police investigations. The two were (and still are) part of an “occult expert” industry that makes money telling people their worst fears are true. America has largely turned their backs on such people, who have begun re-packaging themselves as gang experts.
It is “gang experts” that perpetuate the subculture as gang myth because it’s sensational, it’s easy and it sells. It’s a sleazy and dishonest business and one that’s easily disproved. A few days of ethnographic research will show you exactly what the Juggalo subculture is: a blend of stoner and splatterpunk culture united around a small group of bands which appeals to White working class youth who feel disenfranchised from both mainstream society and the “underground” movements.
But why does that matter? Because without that context it becomes too easy to create a second Satanic Panic. The video report on the incident shows something very interesting if you watch it. The children, all of whom were unsupervised by adults, admitted being scared by the clown makeup of two teens but no adult saw the two menacing the children at all. It’s easy to paint the incident as sinister but take away the “Juggalos are a gang” theory and pretend for a moment it was just a clown coming home from work:
Parents living at the apartment complex at 4040 South in West Valley City claimed two teens in clown makeup terrified their children.
“My eight year old daughter came flying into the house completely terrified told us there were a couple of guys in clown masks outside grabbing kids and threatening them,†said Hank Surowiec who lives in the complex.
One of those kids was four-year-old Mauricio Gonzalez.
“My daughter came running to the house saying they were trying to take him,” said Claudia Gonzales.
She said her husband found Mauricio with the two teens and brought him to safety.
Meanwhile, word spread quickly about two men wearing a clown mask threatening children.
The Lee’s tried to calm a couple of kids down.
“They were very scared,†said Tahira Lee. “They came inside. They couldn’t explain themselves or what was going on. They were stuttering. That’s how I knew something was wrong.”
Haven’t we all been scared of clowns? And sans clown makeup (and pot) wouldn’t you expect two teens who found a 4-year-old playing with some kids just a few years younger, who then ran off leaving the toddler, to attempt to take the kid to find their parents? My point isn’t that I think it’s impossible that these two were kidnappers, just that it’s probable they were doing what you and I would want them to do if they saw a kid that young alone. If not for the clown paint the kids wouldn’t have been scared, and if not for the Utah authorities’ poisonous attitudes about Juggalos it might be likely that the police would be arresting the people who left their 8-year-old in charge of a 4-year-old.
To be sure, Utah Juggalos are their own worst enemy, second only to whatever worm tongued “expert” who is sucking money from an oblivious tax payer teat in exchange for him or her pulling facts from thin air. The kidnapping charges come on the heels of a gruesome ax attack on a 17-year-old where the perpetrators were identified by the “Hatchetman” medallion one dropped during the attack. But Utah authorities are repeating the same mistakes so many made in the 90s by elevating the Juggalo in their mind from somewhat goofy (to we old codgers) subculture to violent gang. That gang enforcement officers are spending time on Juggalos, when MS-13 and Eme are gaining footholds in Utah, should show everyone that Utah’s priorities are skewed.
This case, like the West Memphis Three, will forever be the subject of conspiracy theorizing even if the two are guilty because Utah police will continue to display a level of ignorance unacceptable to most people. That is the legacy of the “experts” that parasitically attach themselves to each new urban myth. Until law enforcement begins demanding a real level of expertise from its experts there is no case that will not be tainted by suspicion, and that’s how it should be. The flawed logic that has police listing Juggalos as a gang would earn an “F” in a freshman college class, but it’s unfortunately unquestioningly accepted as gospel in the news media and court rooms. That should scare us more than pot smokers in clown paint.
