No Sympathy for an Ax-Bicyclist

May police detain a man with an ax who is riding a bicycle at 3 a.m.? Yes, ruled the state Court of Appeal, saying, “Some things cannot be ignored.”

The defendant had been ordered to dismount by a Huntington Beach officer, explaining that he “wanted to put some distance between him [the suspect] and the ax,” which was attached to the vehicle, according to the court summary printed in the L.A. Daily Journal.

The bicyclist was found in possession of methamphetamine but appealed his conviction in Orange County Superior Court on the grounds that he should have been left to go about his business.

Normally, Only in L.A. wouldn’t involve itself in this jurisdiction, except for one aspect of the case. The suspect, who allegedly was intoxicated, indicated to the officer at the time of his arrest that he was “reasonably sure he was either in Long Beach or Bakersfield. . . .”

Long Beach or Bakersfield? What an insult to . . .

You fill in the blank.

INSIDE JOB? In its always-exciting police log, the Sierra Madre News listed the case of a couple “who reported that at the airport on the way to Europe, they had discovered that their wallets were empty, and thus they had to return home.”

But there was a suspect.

“The mother stated that possibly their 16-year-old son had taken the money,” the police log said.

ELECTION DAYS PAST: To get you in the voting spirit today, I enclose two of my favorite snapshots from the 1996 elections. Martin Arce of Glendora noticed a candidate who had an appropriate name for a water district seat (he finished second, though). And Steve Tye came across a mixed message at a Diamond Bar school (see photos).

TIP NO. 1--THE PRESIDENT DOES HAVE A LIMO: Karen Lindell of Sierra Madre sent along a recent printout of the “Welcome” screen from America Online, which contained two items that sounded as though they were related. It read:

CLICK HERE:

Lewinsky to

Provide

Fingerprints

For Starr Probe.

Plus Prom

Night Tips.

SUBSIDIZED POKER: Reader O. Nicko relates that he has come to recognize an offramp panhandler with a “Homeless Will Work for Food” sign because the guy often manages to “collect enough for a buy-in at a local card club. Sometimes he does OK at the table. Most of the time he loses it, so it’s back to the offramp. I won’t mention his name but the players call him ‘Freeway Jim.’ ”

Nicko added: “He’s beaten me out of a couple of good pots!”

miscelLAny

Are sports getting too rough? Well, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal, Steven L. Boortz of South Pasadena admitted that the newspaper’s description of dirty play in his favorite sport was accurate. Boortz cited instances of “shouting matches and sometimes even fisticuffs.” The sport: Ultimate Frisbee, a disk-hurling game patterned after touch football.