Fans defended Justin Bieber after he berated the relentless paparazzi and accused them of only being concerned with turning a profit over valuing people's lives.
According to X17, the "Intentions" singer's retreat to Palm Springs, days before the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, was anything but relaxing as he clashed with the paparazzi for a third day in a row.
Things came to a head as seen in a viral clip captured by TMZ, where he confronted the snap-happy photographers and told them they don't care about "human beings–just money."
The clip started with Bieber walking with his crew early in the morning to a local coffee shop and instantly getting annoyed, recognizing the group of people waiting with cameras.
"Good morning," one of them said, to which the singer responded with his hand blocking his face:
"No. Not 'good morning'! You already know. Why are you here?"
Bieber then got in their space, rubbed his fingers, making the gesture for cash, and said, "Money, money, money, money, money. Get outta here, bro. Money, that's all you want."
"You don't care about human beings," he said, and continued laying into them, giving them a sense of what it feels like to be hounded.
He got up in one photographer's face and said:
"That's all you care about, guys. Is money. You don't care about people. Only money… You don't care about human beings."
You can see a clip here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
A user on X (formerly Twitter) shared the viral clip and described Bieber's frustration leveled at the paparazzi as "crashing out."
However, fans quickly defended the pop star and thought his reaction was warranted.
They also thought the X user's description of his behavior was not accurate.
A dedicated Justin Bieber subReddit thread posting the clip was filled with comments agreeing with Bieber's gripe about the paparazzi.
"Well. .. he’s not wrong," wrote a user, while another said, "Him being photographed every day is exhausting and i only see it from my screen. Give that man some peace."
A commenter observed:
"He's right. There should be a law to protect people against paparazzi harassment."
Another aptly described the shady profession.
"Paparazzi is a form of stalking and violence. Leave this poor man alone," wrote a user.
One Redditor thought Bieber handled the situation as civilly as possible given the circumstances.
"Justin actually handles paparazzi respectfully. They obviously want him to blow up. Paps are just life sized mosquitos," they wrote.
The 31-year-old was recently spotted arriving on a scooter sitting behind his wife, Hailey Bieber, who took to the handlebars days before the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which kicks off on April 11 through April 20.
The sighting came amidst online speculation that their marriage may be on the rocks based on them being seen less frequently together in public.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter