Justin Bieber is no stranger to the paparazzi. He’s been involved in multiple incidents with photographers but recently he’s become calmer in the way he addresses them.
In a new video, Bieber confronts one paparazzo who was present during the singer’s car accident last month, where Bieber accidentally hit another photographer with his pickup truck.
The Sorry singer decides to confront the photographer to ask a simple question: “Why were you so mean?”
READ MORE: Justin Bieber accidentally hits paparazzo with pickup truck
Bieber is seated in the driver’s seat of his car, calling over the “mean” photographer in question.
“Why were you so mean that day?” Bieber asks. “The day of the crash.”
The paparazzo responds: “I was so bummed. That was my friend, man. I didn’t know what happened.”
Bieber calmly continues, saying, “You were yelling such profanity and it was really, really mean. I just wondered why you said that.”
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The paparazzo apologizes and explains that he was “emotional” because his “good friend got run over.”
WATCH BELOW: Bieber accidentally hits paparazzo with pickup truck
Bieber replies: “Yeah, I just think … if that was your friend, you weren’t making the situation better. You were making it more chaotic.”
The singer goes on to offer some advice saying, “Next time, rather than saying such profanity and mean stuff, just try to like, help the situation. If it was your friend you would have been on the ground helping him … If it’s your friend you’re trying to see how he’s doing and not worry about me.”
The two talk it out and later, the photographer compliments Bieber, telling him that he “proved to everybody that he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder.” The pair eventually part ways on a positive note after the photographer gave Bieber a fist bump.
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The interaction between the two followed the incident that occurred while the singer was leaving church last month. He stayed on the scene during the investigation and the 57-year-old photographer he accidentally hit with his pickup truck was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No citations were issued.
The Despacito singer also hit a paparazzo with his car in 2013, when he was about to leave a place swarming with photographers.
He was behind the wheel of his white Ferrari when the photographer was hit and he drove off afterward. Authorities investigated it as a possible hit-and-run incident, but ultimately the singer, 19 at the time, wasn’t charged.
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He’s also been sued multiple times by individual photographers, including a lawsuit filed in 2013 over a 2012 incident in which he was accused of punching a photographer after the man tried to take photos of Bieber and then-girlfriend Selena Gomez leaving a move theatre in Calabasas. The incident was investigated but no criminal charges were filed. The lawsuit was settled last year.
READ MORE: Justin Bieber ordered to attend Miami deposition after paparazzi incident
In 2013, Miami photographer Jeffrey Binion accused Bieber of instructing a bodyguard to attack him and take his film card after taking a photo of him outside a Miami-area recording studio. Bieber settled the lawsuit in 2015, which also included a deposition.
In 2014, Bieber was ordered to give a deposition in a lawsuit filed against him by Miami paparazzo Manuel Moñoz, who alleged he was assaulted by one of Bieber’s bodyguards.
With the case still pending last year, Bieber was ordered to give the deposition or face an arrest warrant. He quietly settled the lawsuit in October 2016 before his deadline to be deposed passed.
The incident with Moñoz took place on the same night that Bieber was arrested by Miami Beach police for allegedly racing a Lamborghini on the city’s streets in 2014.
Bieber struck a deal in August 2014 with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor careless driving and resisting an officer without violence. He made a $50,000 donation to a children’s charity and agreed to attend a 12-hour anger management course. The deal allowed the What Do You Mean hitmaker to avoid a DUI conviction.
READ MORE: Justin Bieber punches fan, leaves him with bloody lip in Barcelona
After performing more than 150 times across six continents, Bieber abruptly cancelled the remaining 15 shows on his Purpose tour due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
The paparazzi and tabloids have been following Bieber closely since the sudden cancellation.
Bieber has been spending a lot of time going to church and has gotten close to his Hillsong Church pastor, Carl Lentz. Last month, TMZ indicated that Bieber’s tour cancellation was due in part to Bieber’s renewed interest in the church.
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The Sorry singer has publicly denied that religion played a role in him abruptly pulling the plug on the Purpose tour.
Bieber said “no” when he was asked if he cancelled the tour due to religious reasons. He cites that he just needed to rest after two years on the road.
On July 7, Bieber and Lentz attended the Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Australia. The pair discussed what they’d been doing at the conference.
“We came over with some ideas, and I feel like God’s exceeded them,” Lentz said.
“That’s a fact,” Bieber agreed.
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Before the pair ended the interview they left some “good words for anybody to encourage.”
“God is able, we’ve seen that in our lives. This conference has reminded me of that,” Lentz said.
“What would Jesus do,” Bieber said before he showed off his bracelet that read “W.W.J.D.”
READ MORE: Justin Bieber banned from performing in China due to ‘bad behaviour’
The singer appears to be cleaning up his act after he was banned from China for “bad behaviour” on July 21. Beijing’s culture bureau explained that Bieber was banned from performing in the country because of his “on- and off-stage antics.”
“Justin Bieber is a gifted singer, but he is also a controversial young foreign singer,” the bureau said in a statement. “As far as we are concerned, he has engaged in a series of bad behaviours, both in his social life and during a previous performance in China, which caused discontent among the public.”
The bureau did not specify what “bad behaviours” it was referring to.
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Bieber was making headlines for negative interactions with his fans during his Purpose tour.
In May, he pleaded with fans to let him eat his lunch in peace and stop acting “like animals.”
The singer was out for lunch in Australia when a crowd of Beliebers began chasing him as he ran to his car from a Chargrill Charlie’s restaurant.
In a video, Bieber tells the crowd, “The more you guys scream and act like animals, the less we can have a conversation.”
READ MORE: Justin Bieber begs fans to stop acting ‘like animals’
WATCH BELOW: Justin Bieber chased by fans in Australia asks them to stop acting ‘like animals’
This came after months of Bieber’s public frustration with his Beliebers. He told his “obnoxious” London concertgoers to “be quiet and listen while I’m talking” and caused an outrage when he dropped his microphone and stormed off stage mid-concert in Manchester after he demanded that his audience stop screaming between his songs.
In November, Bieber took a swing at a fan from a moving car in Barcelona and left the Belieber with a split lip.
Bieber was being driven to the Palau Sant Jordi venue in the Spanish city when a fan stuck his hand through the open window of Bieber’s moving car, attempting to touch the star’s chest and face.
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The video footage shows the What Do You Mean singer appearing to strike the fan in the face in response.
As Bieber’s car drives away, the fan can be seen touching his mouth before turning to face the camera and show his bloodied lip.
This wasn’t the first time the Love Yourself hitmaker had gotten into a physical altercation. He was filmed fighting a man twice his size in Cleveland in June 2016, and he’s had multiple highly publicized run-ins with the paparazzi. There’s also the fight Bieber had with actor Orlando Bloom at an Ibiza restaurant and club in the summer of 2014, after allegedly greeting Bloom by saying, “what’s up, b**ch?”
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