Speaking of young people . . .

"Get the hell off my property, ya lousy kids, ya!" is what I will no longer be yelling at the hip-hop punks who cut across my yard every day as they head over to North High School. Sure don't want to make them mad:

Brodie Clayton of Lochbuie has tattoos of the letters ICP on his left hand and a picture of a hatchet on the other hand, according to court records.

Tess Damm of Lafayette calls herself a "Juggalette" who designed her MySpace .com page with several pictures of two rappers dressed in clown makeup.

Her boyfriend, Bryan Grove, constantly played tunes from a Detroit-based rap group, according to a friend.

All three are young fans of the rap music group Insane Clown Posse, but they have another thing in common:

They've all been implicated in murder.

As police investigate recent violence committed by teenagers, some officials are seeing crimes, and even gangs, linked with fans of Insane Clown Posse . . . .

The two-person group, also known as ICP, is known for its violent lyrics and descriptions of murder. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope formed the group in the early 1990s and perform in black and white clown makeup. . . .

Some ICP songs include killing a pig and stabbing people. In the song, I Stab People, the duo raps, "I order food just to stab the guy when he gets there. I don't care, I stab anybody anywhere."

Cue the expert!

Violent music can have an effect on young people and their actions, said Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida and author of Why Kids Kill Parents. "Music is one of many ingredients that can cause a child to commit murder," she said. "Violent music itself is not enough to cause someone to go over the edge. But if one is angry, alienated or abused, music with violent themes can ignite violence." . . .

Read the whole piece, a classic of the "why aren't you cowering in a corner?" school of journalism. My favorite line:

There are many people who dress up as clowns who are good people . . .

Yeah, sure. And it's only a tiny minority of radical clowns who are doing all the killing, too.