U.S. authorities have arrested dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters in several major cities for camping overnight in public parks and plazas in violation of local laws.

Police cleared a park in the southern city of Richmond, Virginia before dawn Monday, ordering dozens of protesters to leave a tent city they established in mid-October and arresting several activists who refused to budge.

Elsewhere in the south, police arrested 38 anti-Wall Street activists in Austin, Texas early Sunday for illegally operating a food table during overnight hours at a protest site outside City Hall.

In the northwestern city of Portland, Oregon, authorities dragged away and arrested dozens of activists who sat in a local park before dawn Sunday in defiance of a midnight curfew.

No injuries were reported in any of the park-clearing operations.

The Occupy Wall Street protests began in New York last month as a loosely organized movement protesting corporate greed, economic inequality and high unemployment. Protesters remained at their main camp site in a New York park Sunday, despite a storm that brought snow, sleet and rain to the city.

The New York movement has inspired similar sit-ins in cities around the United States and overseas.