Police communications director Elaine Driscoll says officers moved in at about 5 a.m. Saturday. About two dozen demonstrators linked arms and sat down in nonviolent protest and police soon began arresting them.
The operation lasted less than an hour. The area is now being cleared.
Driscoll says the protesters were "very accommodating" to police. The arrests were for trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The city had set a deadline for midnight Thursday for the protesters to abandon the site but police took no action until early Saturday.
Protesters first erected the encampment on Sept. 30.
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