At least 4 separate times at Kumoricon, my friends and I had some kind of interaction or conversations with the Vancouver Police, and I was really struck by how nice, friendly, and cool they were. A group of police officers came up to us in the park one night and talked with us about anime and movies for a while, and we had a great time talking with them. They treated us like friends and not like "weird people doing something crazy." On a few occasions we were doing something for a photo shoot that may have seemed odd or suspicious at first to people outside the cosplay scene, and the police never gave us a hard time about it, they always wanted to talk and try to understand what we were doing, and they even gave us helpful advice. I'm starting this thread to spread the word, and see if anyone else has stories to share. Next year we should all make an effort to be especially nice to the Vancouver Police and let them know how much we appreciate their great attitude.
By the way, as a side note, I heard later on that someone had seen us from a distance that night, and saw the scene where the police came over to us and then we stood up and then they crowded around us, and the person apparently misinterpreted that as meaning that "we were fighting with the police." I laughed really hard at the completely ridiculous idea that my friends and I would fight with the police, especially since we were actually talking with them about anime, but it is also a little sad that someone would jump to that conclusion. Please remember that they are cool people doing their job, and don't assume that something bad is happening if they just want to ask you a question or something.
