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The Yale Police Benevolent Association, a union representing Yale University’s campus police, handed out pamphlets to freshmen containing “disturbing and inflammatory rhetoric about the safety of Yale’s campus and its home city of New Haven” during move-in day, the university said in a statement Monday.
A photo of one of the handouts circulated on X (formerly Twitter) Sunday, featuring a Grim Reaper–like illustration, crime statistics for New Haven and a list of tips for “surviving” in the city. The pamphlet advised students to “stay off the streets after 8 p.m.”
In a press release, the Ivy League institution said the pamphlets contained “misleading” information and stressed that rates of violent crime and robberies are currently down, both on campus and in New Haven. It also noted that the police union and the university are currently in contract negotiations.
“The university supports the right of union members to rally peacefully,” the press release said, “but today’s leafleting both ran counter to the spirit of the day and detracted from the exemplary work performed by Yale Police officers, Public Safety team members, and their partners at the New Haven Police Department.”
Yale’s police chief, the chief of the New Haven Police Department and the mayor of New Haven also denounced the fliers in a press briefing aired by WFSB, a Hartford, Conn.–based CBS affiliate, on Tuesday.
