As we mentioned yesterday, LA Councilman Dennis Zine is behind a proposal to put stricter laws on the ways the paparazzi operate.
And, today when the meeting took place as to what should be done, it turned more into a showdown between Zine and LAPD Chief William Bratton, who openly opposes the new legislation.
According to Chief Bratton, he decided to leave his morning workout and show up at 6am to be near reporters since apparently Zine’s last live interview about the paparazzi aggravated him so much.
He decided to go and “set the record straight.”
Bratton said, “I figured I’d come over and straighten out — we have no intention of participating in today’s hearing. It’s a total waste of time. We have sufficient laws on the books that we enforce to deal with this issue.”
Well obviously the laws aren’t working or your cops aren’t enforcing them properly.
Is Batton getting paid off by the paps????
Bratton continued on by saying that he puts the blame on celebrities, such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, for the constant issues with the paparazzi.
He adds, “If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank God; and, evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue.”
Ouch. Outted by the Chief!
Bratton adds, “If the ones that attract the paparazzi behave in the first place, like we expect of anybody, that solves about 90 percent of the problem. The rest of it we can deal with. So as far as all this grandstanding and foolishness, waste of city time on this issue — and the fact that I felt aggravated enough about it to interrupt my workout to come over and set the record straight, LAPD has no intention of participating in this farce.”
Ok, and what about the celebs that are avoiding the paparazzi and staying at home and have the paps trespass onto their private property? Such as what happened with Halle Berry?
What do you say to that?
[Image via WENN.]