A Few Unorganized Thoughts on the Juggalos

• Juggalos are no more a "gang" than the Kiss Army is a paramilitary organization.

• Gangs have hierarchies, leadership and even business plans -- I doubt you'll find any such organization among the Juggalos.

• That being said, and just like a gang, it's likely that the "Juggalo community" is one of the few communities these kids feel welcome in.

• The most logical answer for why the Juggalos have recently adopted the sundial downtown as their hangout is because the New Moon coffee house across the street has an open mic night on Tuesdays. Ergo, the open area across the street is a good place to retreat to when the music starts to suck and/or shit gets boring (as it tends to frequently do when your an adolescent).

• Also, is it any surprise that kids who are so attention-starved that they wear outlandish costumes and ghoulish make-up would chose one the city's most visible corners to congregate?

• Is it any surprise that the Juggalos started hanging out at the Sundial during a summer when school's out and there are minimal summer jobs for young people?

• The nice thing about outdoor teen gathering areas in Wisconsin is that they rarely survive the winter. By the time, spring rolls around, kids are looking for a new place. That's just the nature of being a teenager.

• While there's very little scientific research done on the "Juggalo demographic," there's a consensus that Juggalos tend to be young, white, male, under-educated and from working or lower class families with little structure. Who else would think dressing up like retarded clowns and rapping about necro-bestiality would be cool?

• The OPD deserves a lot of credit for deciding to air out their grievances with the Juggalos in a public forum instead of doing it after an incident of some kind late at night. We can think of times in the past where subcultures were not treated with this level of courtesy (or in such a timely nature), which lead to simmering tensions between the two parties. We can't help but wonder if Chief Greuel read this New Yorker article from earlier this summer that describes a criminologist who is having success reducing recidivism by preemptively asking criminals to knock off all that crime.

• Did anyone else think this meeting was a small town version of COIN strategy?

• Likewise, good on the Juggalos for going to the meeting. Hopefully they will learn that expressing yourself honestly and with good faith in a public forum is far more productive than emulating these douchebags.

• These kids gathering in public is actually better than them operating in garages, basements or other unsupervised places where they can actually get away with illegal or harmful behavior.
  

• Which brings us to probably the elephant in the room: this is largely about aesthetics. Because these kids look like walking billboards for Prozac, they're basically a form of human blight. That's just the reality of their appearance. I wouldn't want them hanging around my neighborhood just based on their image alone and nor would most people.

• The Insane Clown Posse is the single worst musical act of all-time. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about any aspect of their entertainment product. Eventually, some of these kids will realize this and the shame of this youthful indiscretion will haunt them for the rest of their days.

And now back to my fishing trip...