Students File Complaint With University Police

Three Yale students have filed a complaint with the Harvard Police, charging that an officer used heavy-handed tactics in stopping a streaker at Saturday's football game.

The Harvard Police are investigating the complaint, which three women filed on the streaker's behalf, Deputy Chief of Harvard Police Jack Morse said in an interview yesterday.

Late in Saturday's matchup between Harvard and Yale, several fans from both sides of the stadium bolted across the field, bearing almost everything for the crowd to see.

Police apprehended most of the streakers without any apparent show of force.

But when one Yale exhibitionist ran to the Harvard sideline near the game's end, a Harvard Police officer tackled him. The officer continued to press the streaker face down into the ground until other officers arrived to help carry the student out of the stadium.

Morse said he was uncertain which officer was involved in that incident, and he would not release the names of the Yale streakers or the names of the students who filed the complaint.

Although Morse said he did not know if police had been abusive on Saturday, he said that certain circumstances could warrant physical force.

"In a tussle, people get pushed around," Morse said.

Police may also use force if someone disregards an order to stop, he said.

Two Harvard students who also streaked across the field said in interviews yesterday that police had not used force at all in stopping them.

"I was treated really fairly," said Harry J. Wilson '93. He said two police officers simply escorted him out of the stadium after he cut across the field in mid-play while wearing only his underwear.

A friend later brought him some clothes, Wilson added.

"They were really cool about it," said another streaker from the Harvard stands who would not diclose his name.

After he made it out of the stadium, a motorcycle police officer stopped him with "no force at all," the sophomore from Winthrop House said.