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NEW YORK (AP) -- Police in New York say they've arrested 50 to 60 Occupy Wall Street protesters at intersections near the New York Stock Exchange, brokerage houses and banks.
The protests are marking two months since the birth of the Occupy movement in a lower Manhattan park. Participants are opposing corporate excess and income inequality.
Protests are happening across the country Thursday.
About 500 protesters in Los Angeles are marching in the downtown financial district there.
In Albany, N.Y., protesters from Buffalo, Rochester and other encampments were coming in by bus to join a demonstration in a downtown park.
Police in Portland, Ore., closed a bridge in preparation for a march there.
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Police arrested protesters who sat on the ground and blocked traffic into New York City's financial district on Thursday, part of a day of mass gatherings in response to efforts to break up Occupy Wall Street camps nationwide.
Police said they had arrested 50 to 60 protesters as they thronged intersections near the New York Stock Exchange, brokerage houses and banks.
"All day, all week, shut down Wall Street!" the crowd chanted.
Riot police hauled sit-in protesters to their feet, handcuffing them and setting up metal barricades.
"You do not have a parade permit! You are blocking the street!" a police officer told protesters through a bullhorn.
The congestion brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt. Police were allowing Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs.
The protest did not delay the opening of the New York Stock Exchange or disrupt business, said Rich Adamonis, a spokesman for the exchange.
The protest marked two months since the Occupy Wall Street Movement sprang to life on Sept. 17 with a failed attempt to pitch a protest camp in front of the New York Stock Exchange. After police kept them out of Wall Street, the protesters pitched a camp in nearby Zuccotti Park, across from the World Trade Center site.
On Tuesday police raided Zuccotti Park and cleared out dozens of tents, tarps and sleeping bags.
"This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night," Paul Knick, 44, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J., said as he marched through the financial district with other protesters on Thursday. "It seems like there's a concerted effort to stop the movement and I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen."
The confrontations in New York followed early-morning arrests in other cities.
In Dallas, police evicted dozens of protesters from their campsite near City Hall citing public safety and hygiene issues. They arrested 18 protesters who refused to leave.
Two protesters were arrested and about 20 tents removed at an encampment on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Organizers in New York said protesters would fan out across Manhattan later on Thursday and head to subways, then gather downtown and march over the Brooklyn bridge.
In Foley Square, which is surrounded by state and federal courthouses, organizers got a permit that would allow them to march and use a microphone.
Passer-by Gene Williams, a 57-year-old bond trader, joked that he was "one of the bad guys" but that he empathized with the demonstrators.
"They have a point in a lot of ways," he said. "The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it's getting wider."
The police department said Thursday it would have scores of officers ready to handle protesters in the subways.
"The protesters are calling for a massive event aimed at disrupting major parts of the city," Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said. "We will be prepared for that."
Other cities were also gearing up for protests.
Protesters in Las Vegas vowed to pitch tents in front of a federal building. In Los Angeles, they planned to march to offices of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
In Albany, N.Y., protesters from Buffalo, Rochester and other encampments were coming in by bus to join a demonstration in a downtown park.
Police in Portland, Ore. closed the Steel Bridge to vehicle and pedestrian traffic in preparation for a march there.
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