Bradley Says He’s Sickened by Flyers on Gay Bashing : Cal State Northridge: Mayor’s letter also urges punishment for those involved. The university president says he has yet to receive publicized missive.

Mayor Tom Bradley wrote the president of Cal State Northridge on Tuesday, saying he was sickened by discovery on the campus of flyers offering free baseball bats for a “gay bashing and clubbing night” and urging severe punishment for the originators.

University President James W. Cleary was described as dismayed that Bradley made the letter public before Cleary received it.

Bradley wrote that “Bigotry and hatred clearly have no place in any community, especially a college campus; however, when bigotry is accompanied by violence or threat of violence, then it is clearly and unequivocally a criminal activity which simply can not be tolerated.”

Bradley urged Cleary to deal severely with those responsible for the anonymous flyers, who university officials said had not been found by Tuesday, and to improve relations between groups on campus. He also offered the help of the city’s Human Relations Commission.

Cleary declined to comment on the letter, which he had not received by 5 p.m., university spokeswoman Kaine Thompson said.

“He was nonplussed when I mentioned the letter,” she said. “He was a bit dismayed that the media would have the letter before he’s ever seen it. He doesn’t know quite what to make of it.”

The flyers, one of which was recovered Saturday from a university pole by campus police, read, “Squish the SQUISH,” referring to a campus group, Strong Queers United in Stopping Heterosexism.

“Come join us for the first annual gay bashing and clubbing night,” says the flyer, which shows a stick figure knocking off another stick figure’s head. The flyer, which is being investigated by campus police and the Los Angeles Police Department, urges readers to gather this Saturday evening at the “Northridge Park parking lot.”

Campus Police Lt. Mark Hissong said the park could refer to either a student residence or a nearby city park. Officers are watching both locations.

Police are also considering the possibility that SQUISH members printed the flyer to get publicity, Hissong said. There is no evidence to support such conjecture, but it is one of several possibilities being investigated, he said.

Despite reports that university officials had confiscated as many as seven of the flyers, Hissong said campus police have only one flyer. They have received an unverified report from SQUISH members that seven or eight others were seen on campus, but police have received no other calls reporting the flyers, he said. One student told a reporter he had seen the flyer posted on a campus bulletin board.

“The SQUISH group is the obvious recipient of an awful lot of publicity right now,” Hissong said. “I think therein lie some elements of self-motivation.”

SQUISH co-founder Desiree Dreeuws, 26, denied that SQUISH was behind the flyer. “It’s ridiculous,” said Dreeuws, a senior majoring in journalism. “It really surprises me that campus police would come up with that.”

Dreeuws said the 60-member group--which formed two months ago to fight the belief that heterosexuals are better than homosexuals--had been approached for interviews Tuesday by a magazine and New York radio station. At least five television stations and five other radio stations also contacted the group, said Jeanne M. Rosenberger, university activities coordinator.

At a meeting of the Associated Students Senate Tuesday afternoon, two members of a coalition against hate crimes, which was formed in response to the defacing last month of a ceremonial hut used for a Jewish holiday, said they hoped that such acts of intolerance would not continue on campus, Rosenberger said.

A committee later began drafting a resolution denouncing hate crimes, said student senator Rachel Polish, 18, a sophomore majoring in political science. It is scheduled to come before the 26-member body next week, Senate President David Weiss said.

“It pains me to see such anger on campus and in our community,” Polish said.