If at any time you feel you are being prevented from accessing the Clinic or the area surrounding it, or if you feel you are being harassed, please call the Police non-emergency number (203) 946-6316 and report what has happened. They will send an officer to speak with you and get details of what has happened and also to the protesters.

Photographic evidence is also important- if you can take photos of or videos of any behavior that violates the ordinances and laws listed below please do so.

It is important to report what happens immediately and consistently so that at no time is anyone prevented from accessing the clinic.

There is another ticket open dealing with this issue:

#41255

Please note the following which are violations of City Ordinances and Federal laws:

1. Protesters standing in the street entrances (on Edwards or Lawrence) to Planned Parenthood. Such actions violate the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C., Sect. 248.)
2. The placing of placards, banners, crosses, and other such paraphernalia onto private property (the grassy areas) and/or the sidewalk thereby blocking the right of way for pedestrians. New Haven Ordinance Sec. 27-44.
3. The intimidation and/or harassment (verbal or physical) of people entering or leaving Planned Parenthood. 18 U.S.C., Sect. 248.

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was the dog growling and mean or was it behaving normally? I would not want anyone approaching me with a mean dog, but if it was just a pet on a leash what is wrong with that, not every big dog is Cugo.

Thank you Brian for your very helpful post. I didn't see the other ticket; if they can be combined please let me know how.

To me, it's intimidation and harassment when someone says "you're killing your baby, you're killing your baby" over and over to me when I walk down the street. When I reply that I'm not pregnant and ask them not to speak to me, they say "oh, you must have had an abortion." I don't think men can understand how painful it is for anyone to tell you "you're killing your baby." I have never been pregnant, have never had an abortion (spontaneous or otherwise), and yet this is physically extremely painful for me. It feels emotionally abusive. I cross the street now to avoid them. But what policeman can do about someone saying "you're killing your baby"?

Bob, no, the dog was not acting aggressively, and I didn't say she/he was. Nonetheless, the presence of a 100 lb dog is intimidating. And, they are approaching cars going into the parking lot with the dog.

These people have been on the sidewalks, yelling these things at women passers-by for well over TEN years. It is NOT tolerated in other cities. It is tolerated by "our" local majority-male police who have no backbone or decency toward women. It seriously degrades the quality of life in New Haven, that kooks yelling things at women pedestrians are given a Welcome to New Haven brocure. New Haven needs to take this seriously and realize that women have a right to walk down the street free of harassment. It sets the tone for the nonsense that happens at Yale, for Yale's Old-Boy mentality which exists only here, having gone extinct in progressive areas, for the rapes and killings of women in New Haven that shock us all. They stop being mere "protestors" when they start harassing women walking down the street. Unless of course they're protesting against women having rights. Stop giving public harassment of women a free pass, New Haven.

my problem with these folks is not their protest but their method. often, they are carrying signs with pics of aborted fetuses. this is a family neighborhood. I have to cross the street or cover up my kid's eyes. Is their goal to give small children nightmares? I thought they were pro-life? does that not include the mental well being of my 3 and 4 year olds?

I'm a lifelong free speech advocate, but these mostly old- mostly male and entirely white protesters harass people who are merely walking, biking, or jogging down the street. Planned Parenthood is where I get my primary care and obviously I don't appreciate being yelled at and told I'm going to @#$%, but I have come to expect it by now. SO thank you for shaking me out of that complacency. And thanks to Brian for posting the relevant federal laws and city ordinances - very good to know!

This is terrible and wrong. I strongly support the city taking action to stop the harassment at PP in New Haven. Women should be able to use the necessary services at Planned Parenthood without being harassed. I am deeply disturbed every time I see the protestors there, and while I have not been harassed personally, their presence more than once as made me chose to travel on other streets to avoid being attacked by them. I hope that this spurs the city to take some serious action in restoring calm and dignity to the area.

It is not against the law to have a German Shepherd out in public. They are even used as seeing eye dogs and breed and trained for this task in Bloomfield, CT.
If there was any real harassment I am sure it would be reported to the police by now. What these people are doing is perfectly legal.