LOS ANGELES police fear that tens of thousands of Michael Jackson fans will ignore warnings to stay away from the singer’s memorial service at the downtown Staples Centre today.
Just 17,500 tickets have been distributed to the public for the event, which will be broadcast live across the world and relayed in dozens of cinemas in the US.
Outside the Staples Centre yesterday, fans were signing a tribute board for Mr Jackson but police said that nobody without a ticket would get near the arena this morning.
“If folks do not have a ticket, if they are not credentialed, they will not see anything,” a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said.
Authorities are preparing to cordon off a wide area around the venue this morning and police have warned fans that they will not be allowed anywhere near the action without a ticket. Dozens of television satellite trucks were lined up outside the Staples Centre yesterday for what officials described as the biggest media event Los Angeles has seen in decades.
Organisers have given no details of the line-up at today’s memorial service, which is expected to include musical tributes as well as eulogies. Mr Jackson’s family also remained tight-lipped yesterday about plans for the singer’s funeral, which is expected to be held before the memorial in a private ceremony.
A judge yesterday removed Mr Jackson’s mother, Katherine (79), as administrator of his estate, appointing attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain as executors in accordance with the singer’s 2002 will.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff told the court, however, that arrangements for the estate could change after a second hearing in August.
“Mr Branca and Mr McClain for the next month are at the helm of the ship,” he said.
The judge granted Mr Branca and Mr McClain immediate power over the estate, including the right to negotiate a settlement with concert promoter AEG Live over refunds for Mr Jackson’s cancelled London shows but he said that Katherine Jackson should be kept fully informed about major transactions.
Meanwhile Republican representative for New York Peter King has criticised the saturation media coverage since the pop singer’s death.
“Let’s knock out the psychobabble,” Mr King said in a YouTube video.
“He was a pervert, a child molester; he was a paedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? I just think we’re too politically correct.”
