LOS ANGELES (AP) - A city council member on Thursday called on
AEG Live to pay some of the estimated $1.4 million cost for
policing Michael Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center.

Dennis Zine told Fox 11 that the city's taxpayers "are getting
ripped off" because the owner-operator of the Staples Center
profited by charging media up to $50,000 to use risers outside the
venue.

AEG President Tim Leiweke had said Zine was out of line for
asking AEG to pay for policing because it helped solicit donors for
the Los Angeles Lakers' NBA victory parade last month.

Jackson's concert promoter, AEG Live, said that it paid for the
memorial itself along with the Jackson estate, but did not mention
the cost of crowd control.
The parade and memorial both resulted in extraordinary costs to
Los Angeles at a time when it is in debt for half of a billion
dollars and facing employee layoffs.

The cost of city services for the Lakers' parade was about $1
million. Donors covered about $850,000 of that sum. The Lakers and
AEG spent another $1 million to produce the parade and rally at
Memorial Coliseum.