Biebs a feebs at driving, menace to LA

Photo: Contributed - Bauer-Griffin/Pacific Coast News

Justin Bieber may have mad teen heartthrob skills, but when it comes to getting behind the wheel the Biebs may require a return to Driver’s Ed. You may or may not have heard about his incident with the paparazzi on Friday on the LA freeways.

When a horde of photographers in vehicles tried to get a glimpse of the Boyfriend hitmaker, Bieber's ride, a $100,000 Fisker Karma electric sports car, looked like a silver bullet as it zoomed past the cops at 100 mph on the Hollywood Fwy. (U.S. 101) Friday morning.

In an interview with CNN, Dennis Zine, a 33-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department and still a reserve officer, said, "I expected to see a crash. The danger is of someone getting killed. He was coming up behind me, making abrupt lane changes, not giving signals, cutting off cars."

Apparently, the paparazzi - being driven around in four or five cars all stalking Bieber and his sweet ride (get your minds out of the gutter, people, I don’t mean Selena Gomez) - were tailing him as much as they could. "They were close by, at a rapid speed, all of them," Zine said. "He [Bieber] was coming up behind me, making abrupt lane changes, not giving signals, cutting off cars."

This wasn’t a chase that only lasted a few minutes, either. The dangerous pursuit, which was estimated to have continued for 15 miles, ended when Zine’s call prompted a CHP officer to stop Bieber and cite him for speeding.

"It's like a miracle that nothing happened," Zine said. "It was mere luck that no one got involved in a collision."

Doesn’t this sound like a scene from one of the Fast and Furious films? It does, but this went down on a real freeway with hundreds of other real drivers in real traffic. Movie cameras, Vin Diesel, and The Rock not included.

The whole situation makes me question whether Bieber even cares about remaining inconspicuous. Here’s a guy who apparently wants to evade the paparazzi, but what car does he choose to drive? A highly frickin’ visible exotic sports car. Nice, Biebs, good try at trying to just blend in and not stand out.

Celebs are always bitching that the paparazzi, by doing what they do and how they do it, are putting lives at risk. So how does Bieber respond? By putting even more lives at risk. Not cool, Biebs.

As much as a I try to put myself in his shoes here, I just can’t come up with any legitimate reason why I’d want to take the chance at a 100-mile-an-hour chase on an LA freeway just to avoid having my picture taken. I usually try rolling the let’s-give-the-guy-a-benefit-of-the-doubt dice, but I’m coming up snake eyes on this one.

I think the only excuse that would possibly be cool (yet still unforgivable) would be if he were a huge NWA fan, and he was trying to go all Ice Cube and be 100 Miles and Runnin’.

Cube/Dre references aside (where is Detox, by the way, Dre?), what really bothers me is that this brings about memories of the Princess Diana incident. If the paparazzi is stalking you in a car, GET OFF THE ROAD. Trying to get away isn’t worth the risk – to anyone.

Officer Dennis Zine agrees. "Slow down, get off the freeway and call 911. The faster you go, the faster they're going to go," he said.

Amen.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.