Justin Bieber, who received a speeding ticket on Friday after he says he was being chased by paparazzi, made a 911 call to report being chased by "reckless drivers" in which he offered an alias name.
In the 911 call (video below) Justin Bieber can be heard telling a dispatcher that photographers were again pursuing him recklessly on a Los Angeles freeway. When asked what his name is, he says Justin Johnson.
Before making the call, Bieber was stopped by patrol officers and cited for speeding over 65 miles per hour, as he tried to get away from the paparazzi cars that were chasing him.
"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 added.
Meanwhile, officials and deputies in the California Highway Patrol are deeply split over whether Justin Bieber should have received a citation for Friday's wild, high-speed chase on the 101 Freeway in L.A., law enforcement sources tell TMZ.
Several high-ranking officials said in the report they would not have ticketed Bieber, who was clocked at 80 mph, because he was "the victim" of rogue paparazzi who were chasing him. One source said, "This was like a Princess Diana situation. It was not Bieber's fault."
The claim of a chase is backed by Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, who called authorities after seeing Bieber's distinctive chrome Fisker Karma being chased by five or six other cars, according to the Associated Press.
Zine, who spent 33 years in the Los Angeles Police Department and is a reserve officer, said he was headed downtown from the West Valley when he saw the silver sports car being chased by several cars.
"I didn't know it was Justin Bieber until later," Zine said. "He was going from the fast lane to the slow lane to the shoulder in traffic. It was a very dangerous driving situation. I figured someone was going to crash, so I called 911."
Zine said Bieber admitted to driving 80 mph. The councilman said he understands the problems celebrities have with paparazzi and sponsored a city law to curb the aggressive behavior. Still, he said, that's no excuse.
Listen to audio of Justin Bieber's 911 call below:
