Justin Bieber Graffiti Gets Ire From San Francisco Officials

Singing sensation Justin Bieber is in trouble again with the police, this time in San Francisco.
Graffitis promoting Justin Bieber's new album "Purpose" are spread around the city sidewalks of San Francisco and the authorities are none too pleased about this.

The grafitti was spray painted with a white paint saying "Justin Bieber Purpose #Nov 13" along the pavement. The graffiti was said to be an eyesore and a distraction to people crossing the road, which sparked the anger of the people residing in San Francisco.

According to Cbs News, San Francisco's City Attorney Dennis Herrera is not impressed nor happy with the singer's guerilla marketing grafitti stunt. The Attorney was furious and demanded that Justin Bieber's music publisher cooperate to determine and catch the one responsible for sidewalk graffiti promoting the pop star's latest album. Herrera vowed to identify and catch the culprit.

Fox reported that Herrera plans to take legal action against Def Jam and Universal Music Group.Herrera wrote an open letter to Def Jam CEO Steve Bartels and Universal Music General Counsel and EVP Jeffrey Harleston over the matter.

"This prohibited marketing practice illegally exploits our City's walkable neighborhoods and robust tourism; intentionally creates visual distractions that pose risks to pedestrians on busy rights of way; and irresponsibly tells our youth that likeminded lawlessness and contempt for public property are condoned and encouraged by its beneficiaries -- including Mr. Bieber and the record lab," the letter reads.

Herrera wrote that the marketing stunt was illegal, and he vowed to "aggressively pursue all available penalties and costs from those responsible for lawless marketing tactics that intend to financially benefit Mr. Bieber and your respective companies. This stunt, if proven illegal, could result in up to $2,500 for each violation, along with other penalties. He also said that "the graffiti in question differed from other sidewalk graffiti marketing campaigns is that they were done with chalk. The Bieber ads, it seems, are done with stencils and permanent spray paint."

According to The Guardian, Herrera said that "the public works crews have tried to remove some of the graffiti at great expense." The attorney however, did not provide a figure. The city attorney’s office released photos of eight graffitis and asked for Universal’s help in catching the culprit.

San Francisco’s Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru agreed with Herrera’s actions and relaesed a statement that says “Our sidewalks in San Francisco are not canvasses for corporate advertising and we have made that clear. Tthe definition of graffiti is tagging someone else’s property without permission, and they certainly did not have our permission to do this to our sidewalks.”

The City Attorney has successfully gone after same cases by corporations likei IBM, NBC Universal, Turner Broadcasting and Zynga. So far, there has been no response to Herrera's open letter from the pop star's camp.

"Purpose" of Justin Bieber may have earned alot of money on the album sales but it seems that the legal fines and penalty over this issue could cost his recording company thousands of dollars.