Justin Bieber could be the only celebrity in the nation who could have cops banging down his doorway with a battering ram for allegedly egging his neighbor's house and a few critics found this completely unnecessary.
Los Angeles County police officers descended upon Justin Bieber's Calabasas home on Tuesday morning with a search warrant related to the singer's alleged egg-throwing incident. The law enforcement body sent in a reported 11 patrol cars to raid the "Baby" singer's home.
According to a handful of legal experts, the raid itself was an "embarassing" financial waste of taxpayer money.
"Cops are going to extraordinarily lengths to try to prove what is a relatively minor crime. Rest assured if the average person has their house egged, cops will not respond with the felony warrants and a battering ram," said David Wohl, a California-based criminal defense attorney. "This is a frankly embarrassing response by cops who appear to be hell bent on finally making something stick to this Teflon pop star."
Attorney Leo Terrel seconded Wohl's opinion, explaining that the show of force could be attributed to the fact that law enforcement liked to make examples of high-profile celebrities.
"Justin Bieber is not a hard-nose criminal or accused of having a dangerous weapon. Thus, the 11 cops were all for the cameras," the lawyer said in an interview.
The attorney explained that it is difficult to estimate how much the raid cost the tax payer but the search warrant means a criminal investigation has been opened up by the Sheriff's department, a detective was hired to obtain a search warrant and a judge had to sign off on the search warrant.
Terrel added that he expected the raid's total expenditure could have reached US$15,000 to US$25,000 just based on the number of police officers involved.
Country Sheriff's Department representative Lt. Thompson however, made it clear that Justin Bieber was not given special treatment at any time during the investigation.
"We didn't do this search warrant to send a message, that's not what we do," Thompson said before offering this message. "But we hope maybe understanding the gravity of this will change some of the behavior."
A source within the Los Angeles Police Department defended the law enforcement's tactical decision, explaining that the extra manpower was needed to make sure the raid was successful despite the expected attending media scrutiny.
"They also would have wanted a significant number of witnesses and sets of eyes because it is such a high-profile case," said the insider. "Having at least 11 is better than just one or two... Basically, it was protecting the city's butt."
The raid resulted to the arrest of rapper Lil Za, Bieber's close friend, who was netted for narcotics possession. Authorities confirmed that the "Beauty & a Beat" singer was "not connected" to the illicit drug bust.
This is the latest incident in a string of run-ins Justin Bieber has had with his neighbors in the exclusive, gated community. Complaints of his neighbors against the pop star included driving at dangerous speeds through the residential streets and throwing all night parties.
"Can we be surprised by Bieber's bad behavior? He is a 19-year-old kid, with millions of dollars, fame and no parental supervision. This is a recipe for disaster," pointed out Los Angeles-based attorney, Anahita Sedaghatfar. "As we have seen, he has never suffered consequences for his bad behavior and this is why it is escalating. We have seen this pattern with countless child stars."
A rep for Justin Bieber declined to comment on the issue.
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