Racoons, even city's racoons are terrible beasts. Sure, they are friendly when they aren't upset; Take a treat away from the hands of the sweetest racoon and it will either pounce on you to retrieve it, scream bloody murder, or pounce and slash at you until you retreat.
Racoons, especially in the city, will kill and eat an older housecat or easy to access domestic chickens without hesitation.
Declawing them helps, but nature happens when a declawed racoon feels a call to roam and is outmatched by even a small hawk or possum.
That kind of depends on the circumstances though, doesn't it? If someone on the street snatched your wallet out of your hands, and you felt reasonably confident that you'd be able to safely reclaim it by wrestling it back out of their hands, wouldn't you? I'm personally not very strong or fast, and I don't have any skills in terms of identifying whether someone might have a knife or something, so chances are that I wouldn't feel confident in pulling it off. If I did happen to have enough confidence that I would be able to without getting hurt though, it certainly feels like I'd be justified in doing it, and it seems like it would be more desirable than letting them take my wallet.
I have a bunch of racoons in my yard every night. A year ago, on some whim, they decided to rip open the less than secure but 8 ft in the air vent grating for the chicken coop.
Some chickens made it, most in fact. But playtime involved ripping the heads off 3 of them.
Racoons, especially in the city, will kill and eat an older housecat or easy to access domestic chickens without hesitation.
Declawing them helps, but nature happens when a declawed racoon feels a call to roam and is outmatched by even a small hawk or possum.