So in Los Angeles, a city that sometimes makes New York look normal, they were talking up some legislation meant to somehow crack down on paparazzi-style photographers in pursuit of their celebrity shots. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton (shown here in his official LAPD photo) who famously held the corresponding post in NYC, came hustling into a TV studio straight from the gym to express his opposition to the measure being taken up in a hearing.
It may strike some as surprising, but Bratton is rumored to have a physical condition that causes him to break out in hives and go to the emergency room if he has not received national publicity in the prior six months. His condition, though generally rare, is relatively common among public officials such as certain of his successors and predecessors in the NYPD post.
An excerpt from KNBC's Web site in LA:
"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 sufficent laws on the books that we enforce to deal with this issue," Bratton said, still sweaty from his workout and with a towel hanging around his neck.
"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.
"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."
Full account is here.
Dan Janison