"PSA: How to stand up to bullies – fight heat with light, anger with politeness (park security called police on me – who, after a short conversation, wished me good luck with the game)"

#PokemonGO: https://imgur.com/gallery/symKdGn​Interesting day today – had an encounter with 1 (and then 2) overzealous public park security personnel. I think my story might be instructive on how best to deal with people who effectively wish to be bullies and abuse their positions of power.I’m probably locally known as the guy with the magikarp hat on his head – but today for Chimchar day I got an inflatable pikachu costume to walk around our local park in the centre of town for community day.It started fine – I was walking around catching pokemon, occasionally people would ask me to take a picture with them and I would oblige. All harmless fun and no crowds (health and safety issues) were forming.Eventually one security guard walks up to me and states – “you’ll have to leave” – I think he was surprised when I politely replied asking for his reason. Eventually he came up with the reason that “park bylaws ban dressing up as a cartoon character” – which I questioned him on (always politely – but firm in my position that no such rule exists on the park notices of bylaws). I eventually asked for his name to which he walked off saying he wouldn’t give me that information. So far, so meh – there was some karmic shiny Chimchars caught after that 😊After roughly half an hour, two park security guards approach me. One identifies himself with a name and says the other guard’s name is Mickey Mouse – I suspect that may be a pseudonym however(!) And again requests me to leave the park. Again I ask for what reason they wish I leave this public space – this time the reason has changed to “you are advertising Pokemon and require a licence to do so” – I politely disagree with his assessment and inform him that as a legal professional, I believe I have an understanding of what I can and cannot do in public areas. At this time I would guess that they may not often encounter people who are so calm, polite and yet obstinate (lawyers tend to be that way) and was getting visibly frustrated in being unable to provide an adequately sound reason for why I must leave the park. Instead he started using vulgar language – “you’re f****** ignorant” and telling me to take off my silly suit when speaking to him (that hurt poor Pikachu’s feelings there!) He threatened to call the police – and I informed him I was happy for him to do so. At least the two security personnel knew better than to lay hands on me physically (which would be assault). Passers-by and fellow Pogo players (who I did not know) had stopped to defend me and videotaped the personnel using inappropriate language towards me. At all times I was polite, but firm in my insistence that they need to present a valid reason to eject me from the public space.Fast forward 1.5 hours and a member of the Irish police cycles up to me to and greets me. Now I’m not sure what the park guards had said to the police when reporting my presence to the police but understandably at first he was rather cautious and curt. Again, when dealing with people in authoritative positions I find being calm, courteous and reasonable is always important. He asked for an explanation of the concept of Pokemon Go, whether I was playing with others (luckily our park has hundreds that turn out on community day) and some further details. When I asked for his name, initially he refused stating that a badge number was all that was required and asked for mine – which I readily gave (remember – polite and courteous!) When he finally did give me his name I made sure to say that it was a pleasure to meet him – he was caught speechless for a moment and replied “well the pleasure is all mine”. After chatting a little while longer he wished me good luck with the game and cycled back to the station.This gardai (Irish for police/guard) will be getting a letter praising his professionalism – he responded to a call (I’m not sure how the situation was presented to him), investigated the situation and determined that I was not breaking any laws or being a nuisance to the public and let me continue on my way. Hopefully in the future the local Garda station will know how to respond to any further calls about Pokemon Go players in the park (even if they are dressed like a Pikachu).On the other hand – I dislike bullies – and fellow Po-Goers apparently have had security ejecting them for playing the game in the park before. Not everyone is legally trained and understand their rights to enjoy public space – so I do see it as important to stand up for people who are legitimately just trying to enjoy themselves out in the fresh air playing a computer/mobile game.So back to the main thrust of this post – bullies hate it when you remain calm in the face of aggression – if you stay cool and collected when they are sprouting off it perplexes them to no end. They only need the excuse of a belligerent person to have good reason to eject you from a public space, don’t fall into that trap.The security may have assumed that I was perhaps bluffing in stating I am a lawyer (I guess they never saw Detective Pikachu’s sequel – Lawyer Pikachu) but as the saying goes – when you assume…Anyway – all’s well that ends well. The police department will be getting a politely worded letter thanking them for their professionalism and the park management will be getting an even more politely worded letter informing them of the situation, the provision of video evidence and a list of eyewitnesses who are happy to corroborate my version of events. And hopefully the park security will be able to grow a little and learn that using police time in this manner is a very silly thing to do (as silly as my Pikachu costume!) via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2rMwXHH