Justin Bieber: “Free Scooter”

At a promotional event in Chicago yesterday for his shiny new release Bieber was proudly wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the message “Free Scooter,” according to MTV News.

Braun turned himself in to Nassau County authorities yesterday on charges of reckless endangerment, criminal nuisance and endangering the welfare of a child – all of which the singer refutes.

“My mother and I are 100 percent behind my manager,” Bieber said in a statement released to The Associated Press last evening. “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.”

The incident in question occurred in November, during a scheduled appearance by the singer at a mall on Long Island.

When 3,000 fans showed up and began to get unruly Nassau County police canceled the event, but some in the crowd refused to leave and began pushing and shoving into a narrow area in the mall. Five people suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals for treatment.

According to the Nassau County district attorney’s office, Bieber made things worse by tweeting: “On my way to Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island, NY, to sign and meet fans. I’m pumped. See u there.”

Police demanded a senior vice president from Island Def Jam Records, James Roppo, tweet that the event was canceled, while other IDJ employees present contacted Braun to do the same thing. However, an hour later, no tweet had been sent and the raucous fans still refused to leave.

Roppo was arrested and charged with a series of misdemeanors, including endangering the welfare of children and obstructing governmental administration, and authorities then contacted Braun directly.

The 28-year-old manager informed them that he “was in a meeting in Manhattan without access to a computer,” but police threatened him with arrest if he didn’t cooperate.
Braun’s response? He asked that authorities be sure to spell his name right on the arrest warrant. (Oh snap!)

Apparently not amused by Scooter’s wit, the DA did indeed issue a warrant alleging that it took him an hour and a half to send two tweets about three minutes apart. Braun and his attorney, Ravi Batra, contend he complied as soon as he could find a computer and sent the two tweets within seven minutes of the request.

Whatever the timing of the tweets, which should be a fairly cut-and-dried thing to establish with the cooperation of Twitter, the crowd dispersed within 15 minutes after they were sent.

If convicted of the charges, Braun faces up to a year in jail where he’ll no doubt have a very interesting story to tell to his cellmate.

While I have your attention, I’d like to reinforce the concerns I and the rest of the Pollstar staff have regarding the response to my story about Justin Bieber’s Golden Ticket 2.0 contest.

The number of people who’ve read and commented on the story is frankly astounding. But what’s even more remarkable – and a little frightening – is the willingness among Justin’s fans to offer up personal details (email addresses, names, ages, phone numbers, etc.) that could create problems for them in the hands of the wrong people.

So once again, let me make it clear that Pollstar has absolutely nothing to do with the contest other than offering up the details about it for fans. If you want to enter the contest, you’ll have to either buy a copy of My World 2.0 or visit JustinBieberMusic.com/GoldenTicket2.

Kids, I cannot stress strongly enough how dangerous it is to post personal information in an open comment thread. We love our readers, no matter how old they are or how many times they’ve visited our site, and we’d hate to see anything bad happen to any of them.