I’d say some times it is warranted. Years ago at Mardi Gras, I REALLY needed to pee. And you quickly find out that restrooms are for paying customers only. And after you pay for something you really don’t need just to pee, they let you know that their restrooms are out of order…after you’ve been told to buy to use them. After several attempts, and two useless purchases…I made my way to an alley. Only to have someone grab me by the shoulder and me almost punch them. It was a cop. They don’t care about explanations…they just want your $350 (I think this is what the cop quoted).
I was placed in a line with a dozen other guys cuffed one to another in a chain. I was wearing my black leather motorcycle jacket that had a cuff key off hanging off the belt buckle sewn in…I was frisked and everything removed from my pocket – money included (ID in my sock ignored), but my jacket stayed on and they didn’t notice the key. I convinced several folks in line that I was going to pass the key as soon as I was done, and that I wasn’t going to leave until we all ran. Yeah…this logic worked on drunkos. Most of them. Either way the cops weren’t listening to the one guy that was screaming that we were going to escape. Got one undone, convinced guys to pretend I was still chained in hopes that he was going to get unchained too…got the other and told the guys I was going to have to pull my jacket off to get the key off for them. And ran like a mofo…three guys on the ‘free’ end ran into a crowd but didn’t get far…and I disappeared.
Sometimes? Having a cuff key is warranted…especially when dealing with corrupt police officers. Sure…NOLA officers aren’t corrupt compared to other parts of the world, but for the US? I can’t think of a worse police department that I’ve ever had to deal with. I was just lucky I had mine on. Never expected to use it…forgot about it for the first 15 minutes I was in the chain gang. Only had it on there to pretend to be a ‘badass’…it came in handy…
