Police were told Denny drove the woman to San Diego International Airport, where he flashed his fake badge to get through security. [More]See, have the amulet and you have the power to cloud men's minds--although in the case of TSA, the clouds are already pretty dark and fluffy.
I'll bet if you had that amulet you could walk around with a gun and no one would give you a second look. Do the same without it, and you may stampede the herd.
Mass conditioned reflexes to symbols of authority--why, that's a pretty handy thing for tyrants to have...and it works like magic!
[Via Harvey]