To read about it in the Times, the thing might have been the worst local catastrophe since the 1994 quake. On the front page of Saturday’s Metro section, Dick Riordan publicist and occasional Times reporter Jim Newton called a federal decision not to hand the city some law-enforcement money “a stunning slap at Los Angeles’ law-enforcement record.””Riordan administration officials were surprised and angered by the White House decision to bypass the city,” he continued. Newton further told us that Los Angeles really should have got itself a big hunk of this year’s $100 million in federal law-enforcement funds. But didn’t.Indeed, one unnamed Riordan official was quoted as virtually threatening retaliation against the feds: “It’s no more Mister Nice Guy.” I guess that means that the city may order its traffic officers to tow away government cars parked at the nearby U.S. District Court. Is there any other way Los Angeles could really hurt Uncle? But then, what we are really talking about here is severely injured vanity. Police funding is the very issue for whose sake Riordan had last year hitched a much-publicized (by Newton) front-page limo ride with Vice President Al Gore. It just didn’t seem fair that such ludicrously extreme efforts should come to naught.