BREAKING NEWS:

Dozens of police in riot gear have moved into a park near the state Capitol where hundreds of Occupy Denver protesters have gathered, and police have started to remove the protesters’ tents.

The action began about 3:30 a.m. Friday. Later, a line of dozens of police faced off toward protesters who appeared to be holding their ground. There have been no apparent clashes.

Footage broadcast by KUSA-TV shows police working on the tents while protests continue to mill about. State Police say there have been no arrests.

Earlier, authorities gave an 11 p.m. Thursday deadline to clear the park, but protesters stayed put.

State Patrol Chief James Wolfinbarger had said troopers could issue citations or make arrests between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Follow @denverpost on Twitter for latest updates on #occupydenver.

Protesters and police engaged in a staredown into the early hours of Friday, as members of the Occupy Denver movement stubbornly defied an 11 p.m. deadline for them to leave a park near the Capitol.

Demonstrators circled the park’s perimeter and chanted things such as, “Freedom does not have a curfew,” police officers and state troopers — some ready in riot gear — gathered nearby. But neither police nor protesters had forced a confrontation by 1 a.m.

Many protesters had left before the deadline, but hundreds others did not. As the deadline neared, protest leaders in the park, as well as dozens of supporters on Twitter, urged peaceful resistance to any efforts to evict the movement.

“Please keep everything peaceful regardless of others’ thoughts or actions,” the movement posted on its Occupy Denver Twitter feed minutes before the deadline.

Still, concerns of violence persisted. Employees working late-night shifts at some downtown businesses were told to move their cars in case riots broke out. The tension also seemed to draw an influx of people who appeared to be mostly interested in mayhem.

“The #OccupyDenver people have been given an ultimatum,” one Twitter user wrote at about 9:30 p.m. “…I’m on my way to downtown to see chaos ensue.”

Speaking at a 9:30 p.m. news conference forced indoors by chants and a crowd that surged onto the Capitol steps, State Patrol Chief James Wolfinbarger said that troopers could take action including issuing citations or making arrests between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

“We want people to go home,” Wolfinbarger told a small group of media, his voice sometimes drowned out by people outside pounding on the Capitol doors and yelling. “We want this to end well so people can come back tomorrow and continue.”

He also expressed concern that the original Occupy Denver protest has been “hijacked” by people whose goal is civil disobedience.

“The concern is this group that is out there in large part is not representative of the group out there at the start,” Wolfinbarger said.

As the 11 p.m. deadline loomed, the crowd thinned somewhat, but many said they were determined to stay and willing to be arrested.

Legal advisers were giving tips on dealing with police — including not to resist arrest or fight with officers — and medics announced they would be on hand to help if anyone was injured.

At a more than hour-long “general assembly” earlier in the evening, Occupy Denver protesters vocally debated their options.

The option that they leave the park in front of the Capitol by 11 p.m., as ordered, and return in the morning was booed by much of the crowd, which had grown into the hundreds by 9 p.m.

Other options being considered including moving onto the sidewalk, marching to a different place to camp for the night — or staying put overnight for an inevitable confrontation with state troopers and Denver police.

“Things are going to get hairy,” 29-year-old Becca Chavez of Colorado Springs said earlier Thursday. She is one of the organizers of the 3-week-long protest that has grown into a tent city on the state Capitol grounds.

“Please leave if you want to be safe,” said Chavez, asking fellow protesters to remove wood, rocks or other objects in the park that could be used as a weapon by people seeking to incite violence.

Earlier in the day, Gov. John Hickenlooper held a news conference, along with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, demanding the protesters disperse by 11 p.m. or face arrest for violating state laws that forbid camping on those grounds.

The Occupy Denver movement has mirrored similar movements across the country that started with New York’s Occupy Wall Street, which protesters say is a response to frustration over what they view as the country’s inequitable financial system.

There have been no reports of Occupy camps being forcibly evicted in other cities, but more than 100 people were arrested this week when they tried to expand Occupy Boston. Also, the Occupy Wall Street group has been told to vacate by 7 a.m. today so the park can be cleaned.

In Denver, the encampment has about 70 tents, a kitchen with free food, library, school, worship tent, security detail and nurses station. Members said they also are planning a march at noon on Saturday.

Some protesters say the encampment should be allowed to remain overnight as an expression of free speech.

Hickenlooper disagreed.

“No one supports the First Amendment more than we do,” he said. “But we have state laws and city laws that must be obeyed by everyone. We have said they are welcome to assemble at 5 o’clock in the morning and stay until 11 o’clock at night. But you can’t stay there overnight.”

Hickenlooper said the gathering is risking public health and safety.

No permit for group

At the news conference, Suthers read the Colorado law that forbids camping on state Capitol grounds. Also, state regulations require any event on the property to have a preapproved permit, which Occupy Denver did not possess, he said.

Early Thursday, Hickenlooper strode through the encampment, talking with some of the protesters and getting heckled by a few.

“We’ve been talking to the group every day since Monday,” Hickenlooper said. “And every time we’ve talked to them, we’ve told them it is illegal and unsafe to camp in the park.”

Staff writers Kurtis Lee, Weston Gentry, John Ingold and Bruce Finley contributed to this report.