Taylor Swift's protection from stalkers has "limits" in today's legal environment, even though celebrity stalking has led to tragic deaths before, according to experts.
A man has allegedly been stalking Swift, appearing at her NYC home, and while prosecutors work to keep the global pop star safe, celebrity attorney Chris Melcher explained the laws sometimes can't keep up.
"Taylor is so big. And like [John] Lennon and others, who have had tragic endings, because of [Taylor's] ubiquity worldwide, it... invites those with mental illness at a scale and multiplier that is perhaps bigger than ever before," branding expert Eric Schiffer explained to Fox News Digital.
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David Crowe has been arrested three times in the last week outside Swift's Tribeca neighborhood home. Crowe was charged with stalking in the fourth degree along with harassment in the first and second degree, Fox News Digital confirmed. The man has been "asked to leave [Swift's home] over 10 times," an assistant district attorney for Manhattan said in court.
According to the criminal complaint, obtained by Fox News Digital, Crowe was seen outside the home "approximately 30 times" between Nov. 25, 2023, and Jan. 22, 2024. Crowe was given supervised release after his arraignment on Jan. 24, as requested by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. However, he appeared outside of Swift's home shortly after leaving court that day.
"Officers responded to a 911 call for a disorderly male in the vicinity of Franklin Street and Hudson Street, which is in the First Precinct," the NYPD told Fox News Digital. "On arrival, a male left the location and walked into the First Precinct, where he was subsequently taken into custody without further incident. He was charged with four counts of criminal contempt."
Crowe remains behind bars after a judge granted the prosecution's request for him to be remanded into custody.
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"Taylor has done everything she can to remain safe, but there are limits to how long he can be held in custody," celebrity attorney Chris Melcher told Fox News Digital.
"An emergency mental health admission or comprehensive psychiatric emergency admission is allowed under New York law, but those involuntary measures could also last for a short time," he added.
Crowe seems to be "willing to continue to cycle in and out of jail to be close to his obsession," Schiffer noted.
"That scenario is amplified by the criminal justice system today that is far more lenient in certain cities, which frustrates stars – and many in the public – that want to see laws be tougher and judges hold people who break laws and not spin them right back out."
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Swift's stalker situation is eerily reminiscent of celebrity stalkers of the past – including John Lennon's assassin.
Lennon was murdered on Dec. 8, 1980, by Mark David Chapman, a man who had been stalking the English musician. Chapman had asked Lennon for an autograph earlier in the day, before he shot and killed The Beatles star outside The Dakota apartments in NYC.
He had bought a gun three months prior to the shooting and traveled all the way from Hawaii to New York.
Chapman later told a parole board that he had been "seeking fame," when he concocted the plan to kill Lennon. "I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil," he said in September 2022, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press. "I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life."
However, social media seems to play a role in the intensity of the celebrity stalker's obsession in modern day, Schiffer told Fox News Digital.
"We see the stalker's intense obsession, perhaps more in some ways, because of the connection that people feel they have to stars given social media, and the way in which stars can connect intimately," he explained. "Those that might have stalked in the past now have an even greater emotional obsession and feeling of intimacy that is not based in reality."
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While social media allow stars to create a community within their fan base, it also facilitates a false sense of intimacy between the person interacting with their content, Schiffer explained.
"Taylor and other stars are balancing that. And that's done through risk assessment. It's done through proper planning," he said. "And with Taylor, she's got the budget to be able to keep herself protected with security, to not telegraph in all cases where she may be, and to be aware of the risks in real time – given the security budgets that she has."
"But not every star has that, either budget or willingness to spend, or desire to bring on those sophisticated teams that can help."
