POLICE UNION FLYERS WARNING OF CRIME OUTRAGE YALE, CITY

Yale University and New Haven officials blasted the labor union representing campus police officers Tuesday for handing out flyers telling new students it was unsafe to leave school grounds, walk alone, take public transportation or be outdoors after 8 p.m.

The pamphlets, distributed Sunday as incoming Yale freshmen moved into their dorms, came emblazoned with a hooded skull and purported to be a “survival guide” for first-year students at the prestigious university.

They portrayed Yale’s home city on the Connecticut coast as a place to be avoided, especially after dark.

“The incidence of crime and violence in New Haven is shockingly high, and it is getting worse,” it warned, offering examples of recent crimes.

School and city officials called the handouts a misleading scare tactic by a union seeking a new contract.

“They handed out unbelievably offensive flyers with misrepresentative information, scaring Yale students and promoting a narrative of our city that is inaccurate and totally offensive,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said at a news conference. “And to do this is childish and is selfish.”

Officials with the union, the Yale Police Benevolent Association, said the flyer was only meant to help keep students safe and had nothing to do with contract talks.

The pamphlet is a close copy of an infamous leaflet, entitled “Welcome to Fear City,” that New York City’s police and firefighter unions distributed in 1975 to visitors arriving at the airport. That flyer was put out as the unions fought a plan by New York’s mayor to lay off thousands of police officers and other government workers to avoid bankruptcy.