Controversy has broken out anew in the sparkling career of young Justin Bieber. His manager, Scooter Braun, was arrested this week in relation to an incident that took place at a scheduled Bieber appearance at a Long Island mall in November, when an unexpected number of unruly Bieber-maniacs showed up and grew out of control (luckily, the damage was relatively controlled for the Bieber phenomeon, as only five people were hospitalized with minor Bieber-related injuries). The police claim Braun dawdled on their request to send a message on Bieber’s Twitter canceling the event, thereby failing to disperse the crowd, and have now charged him with reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance.
But you know who ain’t having it? Justin “the heck with the police†Bieber. He released a statement last night saying, “My mother* and I are 100% behind my manager. He is someone of high moral character and principle. The decisions he made that day were to protect the safety of myself and my fans and I am very thankful to have someone in my life who watches over me the way Scooter does.†Even better, Bieber was spotted in Chicago interacting with weepy, shrieking fanatics while rocking a “Free Scooter†T-shirt, the kind of thing generally reserved for the gulliest of Southern rappers. Anyway, based on the testimony from the thus-far infallible Bieber, we feel confident the case will be summarily dismissed. Plus, Braun — who’s been instrumental in cultivating Bieber from YouTube sensation to all-world sensation — is facing up to a year in prison, and do the Long Island police really want to bear the burden of potentially disrupting the wondrous flourishing of Justin Bieber? Okay, now where can we get a “Free Scooter†T-shirt?
*By the way, check out this quote from Bieber’s mom on Scooter, taken out of context from this Times profile: “I prayed, ‘God, you don’t want this Jewish kid to be Justin’s man, do you?’â€