Google’s Google Trends, on the UC Davis Pepper Spray incident, characterizes the incident as “mild”. The Boing Boing coverage shows the intensity much better. Perhaps most surprising from a public records standpoint is the lack of official acknowledgement of incidents in the UC Davis police crime logs, where given the size of the event I’d have expected a “crime alert” at the very least.
The courts weigh in on pepper spray as excessive force in Young vs County of Los Angeles.
Edward Vielmetti's Wordpress weblog 
Gotta love court opinions. The clerks must really enjoy writing these. “Rather, whether Wells’s claim that he feared a broccoli-based assault is credible and reasonable presents a genuine question of material fact that must be resolved not by a court ruling on a motion for summary judgment but by a jury in its capacity as the trier of fact.”