Justin Bieber Fans Find New Target for Death Threats

Have teenyboppers always been this dangerous?

Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber has been at the center of many a death threat in the past year, thanks to his near-rabid following of so-called "Beliebers." For some Bieber fans, loving the music and the man is not enough: They're also in charge of eliminating all potential threats to the object of their overwhelming, sort of scary affection.

On Thursday, Justin Bieber played host to a huge crowd of screaming fans at Macy's Herald Square in New York City to launch his new perfume, Someday. At some point a man TMZ has reported to be a plainclothes police officer jumped a barricade in an effort to control the crowd. A member of Bieber's security, unaware that the officer was a cop, reportedly grabbed the cop and tried to escort him away.

Somehow, the incident got reported differently on selected blogs, including the New York Times' Arts Beat: "In an occurence that warrants at least a 5.7 on the O.M.G.-scale we just completely invented, Mr. Bieber, the 17-year-old floppy haired pop star, was knocked down and possibly shaken up at an event on Thursday at Macy's in Herald Square."

Cue the death threats.

Jezebel jumped on the story quickly, noting that waves of online vitriol were being directed at one "Tom Petterson," who may or may not be the police officer who was probably just doing his job. There are photos of different men identified as the supposed Bieber offender being tweeted and retweeted, along with threats like, "dear, Tom Petterson if you don't kill yourself, 31 million believers will do it for you. so i suggest you do it asap."

There are also hormone-ravaged young'uns passing around the supposed address of Mr. Tom Petterson. Somewhere, some poor dude who probably doesn't even know who Justin Bieber is might find himself stalked by a small army of troops with braces.

With fans like that, it's no wonder Bieber's security team gets a little overreactive from time to time.