From my latest on HuffPost:

Linda Lye, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, told HuffPost that the emails reveal it wasn’t just a couple of “bad apples” on the police force.

“What this shows is [Birgeneau] was also responsible, in the additional sense of creating the environment,” Lye said. “He set the tone, gave the directive … This is a larger systemic problem.”

On Nov. 28, 2011, Birgeneau told faculty at a meeting that he explicitly prohibited police from using tear gas or pepper spray, but that “unfortunately, we did not at the same time discuss the use of the baton.”

UC Berkeley campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said the emails didn’t indicate what was authorized, but did tell HuffPost that “any authorization comes beforehand.”

“His comments [in the emails] were neither an authorization for or a prohibition against future use,” Mogulof said. “The policy itself [of no encampments] still stood without any entry into discussion of tactics.”