In the video I posted he doesn't start spraying until 11 seconds in after showing everyone that he had pepper spray in his hand..

The fights, drug sales, and whatever else shouldn't matter with how the police respond to individuals sitting on the ground. If they had just witnessed that specifically with one or more of those people then they should have been targeted individually.. I doubt that group sitting there was seconds before partaking in some legal activity (beyond trespassing at this point which is arguable since it's a college campus but whatever..) that the police witnessed and then didn't attempt the first 3 steps of escalation of force.