(CNN) -- The arrests occurred thousands of miles apart, but the scenes were similar in Oregon and Texas early Sunday: In the dark of night, police told Occupy demonstrators to leave protest sites. Those who refused were handcuffed and arrested.
Authorities in Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas, say protesters were trespassing and violating city rules. Demonstrators say authorities were infringing on protesters' rights to assemble.
Police arrested more than two dozen people who refused to leave a park in northwest Portland, Oregon, after warnings that the park closed at midnight, police said.
Authorities in Portland "gave protesters numerous opportunities to simply walk away or choose to be arrested," Mayor Sam Adams told CNN affiliate KPTV.
"This tonight was, I think, an unnecessary confrontation that we worked really hard to minimize," he said.
Occupy Portland offered a different take.
"Six mounted police and approximately 65 police in riot gear pushed supporters to the sidewalks and conducted the arrests over a period of several hours," the group said in a statement.
A Twitter post from the group as police entered the park said, "This is what a police state looks like."
Police also arrested 38 people in Austin, Texas, who had set up a table with food and other items outside City Hall two days after the city issued rules saying food tables at the event must be put away between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. When the group was asked to leave the area, the 38 refused and were arrested, police said.
"A number of individuals decided to try to prevent the police from taking the food table, so they formed a ring around it. That's when they (police) started pulling people out arresting them," Occupy Austin member Ronnie Garza told CNN affiliate YNN.
Group members questioned the legitimacy of the city's new guidelines, saying they were not passed by a City Council vote, YNN reported.
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