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Legal Top Stories
Island Def Jam exec arrested after Bieber fans get out of control
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 23 November 2009
Proving that it’s not just British teenage pop fans who can bring a busy shopping centre to a halt, police in New York were forced to shut down a shopping mall appearance by a rising teen pop sensation called Justin Bieber after 3000 young mainly female fans got out of control. Though when JLS fans went insane in Birmingham, no one from their record company was arrested.
There was still two hours until Canadian popster Bieber was due on stage at the Long Island shopping mall when fans surged forward, knocking down somewhat flimsy rope barricades. Five fans were taken to hospital with minor injuries as police ordered the appearance be cancelled.
It was Island Def Jam VP James Roppo who was arrested, seemingly because he refused to send out a message via Bieber’s Twitter feed telling the kids to go home. Which is a previously unheard of crime, I think. A police spokesman told reporters: “We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message. By not cooperating with us, we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk”. So, a lesson for all you Twitter feed managers there I think.
Bieber himself did later report via Twitter that he’d been refused entry to the mall, therefore confirming his appearance would not go ahead. He claims he was also threatened with arrest if he didn’t comply with police orders to get the hell out of there.
Perhaps police were keen to test Bieber’s claim in the title of his debut album that this is ‘My World’. When it comes to him meeting his fans in New York shopping centres, I think a higher authority is probably in control.
