Thaindian News

Faulty computer systems have resulted in the City of Los Angeles meeting the bulk of the $1.4 million spent on the memorial service for dead King of Pop Michael Jackson.

The city, which is more than $530 million in debt, set up a webpage asking Jackson fans to donate money to help with the expenses, but constant crashes meant very little money was received.

The Los Angeles city mayor’s office said on Wednesday it had spent $1.4 million rostering an additional 1,400 police for crowd control and security, collecting trash, and controlling traffic in the lead up to and following Tuesday’s event.

According to a mayor’s office spokesperson, hundreds of donors contributed more than $17,000 through the website Tuesday morning, but the high traffic volume resulted in the site crashing for lengthy periods of time preventing it from achieving the desired results.

The spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the website also crashed for 12 hours, beginning at 8pm Tuesday and periodically throughout Wednesday morning.

John Franklin, a spokesman for Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, said: “The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying [the initial costs] for a private event … especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been furloughed or even lost jobs”.

During the Los Angeles Lakers championship parade this year, nearly 2,000 police were called in at a cost of $2 million. The Lakers and private donors reimbursed the city for most of the expenses.

Michael Roth, spokesman for AEG, which owns the Staples Center and organized the memorial, could not be reached for comment.