 Bad Image The Central Florida Rydaz has had its share of bad press and a bad image in the past, sometimes deserved like in the case of the 440 Boyz and (former) Ryda J-Roc being arrested for drug trafficking and gang violence. But usually its by people who judge us because we used to hang around the malls with a large group, wearing bandannas and listening to violent music. Sometimes now a days it's from civilians who can't tell the difference between the patch on our back and the Hells Angels, and assume we are in town to rape and pillage. Sometimes its simply for being mostly Juggalos. But being a Juggalo was never a crime, until now.... In 2011, and since, the FBI has labeled "Juggalos" as a federal Gang. Saying in the memo; "Most crimes committed by Juggalos are sporadic, disorganized, individualistic, and often involve simple assault, personal drug use and possession, petty theft, and vandalism. However, open source reporting suggests 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." This document labels "Juggalos" as a national criminal organization, with smaller sub-sets operating in all 50 states and on Native Reservations. This is exactly why we decided to NOT use the Hatchetman in our main patch, to avoid being associated with "criminal" elements. This didn't matter however to local Gang Units, When the head of the Eustis Police Department Gang Unit took time on his day off, to come to our First Friday Streetfest meet-up and inform our President and Vice President that we were being investigated for being a gang. This was taken as a surprise since we have been supporting the community and been around so long, that this just happened to come up then. Upon our V. President and Road Captain having a meeting with him, the Detective told them that "The CenFL Rydaz, have a similar structure and appearance of a 1% Club, with our By-Laws organized similar to other biker gangs. Also a reference was made on the Clubs Facebook page to another local gang, Sur-13. It is true that individuals in the Club, including our vice president, know members of Sur-13 as well as other gangs and Clubs. But there was absolutely no affiliation with them. The post in question was actually warning CFR members to keep an eye out for the other gangs at the festival. But the whole FBI thing on top of this made the "CFR a 1% Club, in Support of a National Criminal Organization". The Club made this issue public by telling the local businesses and through Facebook, which led to a rally with local Lake County merchants coming to the aid of the CFR and setting the record straight. As of now, the Eustis PD Gang file is reported "Closed" on the CenFL Rydaz, but the image is already out there. Lake County Sheriffs Department has not had a file on us. The FBI "Juggalo" file still is open however. Continue to Chapter 13 |
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