Justin Bieber 911 Call: Police Were 'Not Nice' About Speeding Ticket Stop
The 911 call Justin Bieber made when paparazzi were following him on Friday has been released, and in it the teen singing sensation can be heard telling a dispatcher that photographers were again pursuing him recklessly on a Los Angeles freeway.
He also says police who ticketed him earlier - when he had been trying to evade the pursuing paparazzi - were "not nice" when he was trying to explain what was going on.
In the recording, which was obtained by radio station LA96.3FM and posted on TMZ, Bieber sounds tentative as he tells the dispatcher: "Um, I have like, five cars following me," he said.
The dispatcher asks the 18-year-old star his name, and he replies: "Justin."
When she asks for his last name, he pauses, then answers, "Johnson."
Bieber made the call after he was ticketed earlier that day for speeding, and he's said he was driving fast to evade the aggressive paparazzi.
In that incident, police stopped the "Boyfriend" singer in his sports car - a $100,000 Fisker Karma - and gave him a ticket for driving more than 65 miles per hour.
In his 911 call, Bieber tells the dispatcher that the same paparazzi who had been pursuing him earlier were tailing him again as he was headed to work.
"They're driving really reckless. They just will not stop following me," he said.
The dispatcher asked him if he had been pulled over earlier, and he said he was, but then explained his side of the story:
"I was driving fast so that I could try to get away from them and I got pulled over myself," he said. "When I explained to the police officers, they were being, like, not nice about it.
"They were just like, 'You waive your rights to privacy when you're a celebrity.' But that makes absolutely no sense when they're the ones being dangerous," he said.
Dennis Zine, a Los Angeles City Councilman who witnessed Bieber trying to evade paparazzi before being ticketed, said the pop star was driving recklessly..
"As I watched, I was anticipating a crash," Zine said. "It was chaos. Total willful disregard for people on the roadway."
While Zine said that Bieber should be arrested, others in law enforcement reportedly believe that the teen singer should not have been ticketed given the extenuating circumstances with the paparazzi.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ.com that it was “like a Princess Diana situation. It was not Bieber’s fault.”
Bieber filed a formal complaint against the paparazzo, but TMZ reports that it’s "unlikely" the photographer will be prosecuted.
