In what may have been some sort of Renaissance fair hazing ritual (not really, but we can dream), 20 year-old Simon Austin was arrested around 4 p.m. Saturday on East Riverside Drive near downtown. He drew the attention of police after “yelling and waving a hatchet above his head” on a pedicab, the Austin American Statesman reports.
“Austin was yelling and flicking the hatchet in the direction of passing pedestrians and vehicle traffic,” the affidavit says. “Due to (Simon) Austin’s abnormal behavior, traffic and the current pedestrian traffic… I believed he was a danger to public safety.”
After placing Austin in the back of his police car and securing the hatchet, the arresting officer then found a foot-long knife in the backpack that Austin was carrying. The knife resulted in the class A misdemeanor charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon.
Look, we get it. Sometimes we all want to channel our inner juggalo and ride through the streets of Austin, hatchet in hand, Insane Clown Posse in our hearts, but let’s not. We love our pedicab drivers and really don’t want anyone to get hurt.
We’ll just add this to the growing list of odd arrest stories coming out of Austin this year…remember that time that lady crane kicked a cop downtown?
