What started as the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York in September has spread across major cities worldwide as a call to action against unequal distribution of wealth.

Here is a roundup of some of the movement’s recent developments.

CHAPEL HILL, NC

Police in Chapel Hill, NC, who have come under fire for a weekend raid where officers in riot gear used semi-automatic weapons to remove squatters, said Monday the use of force was justified.

Police Chief Chris Blue told the town council that about 70 people had occupied the vacant building Saturday night, some of whom had masks on and distributed literature “including information on how many people it takes to flip over a police car.”

Officers waited a day and moved in. Seven people were arrested Sunday. No weapons were found inside the building, according to CNN affiliate WRAL.

“We didn’t know what we were walking into,” Blue told the council.

Images from the raid have riled many in the traditionally liberal town. Some showed police pointing guns at protesters and pinning them on the ground.

“They’re not the images that we or anybody in this community, I believe, wants to see,” Blue said.

Among those cuffed and detained was Kately Ferral, a reporter with the News & Observer.

“They told me to get on the ground and spread my arms out. And so I did that,” she told WRAL.

Earlier Monday, Blue and Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt appeared at a news conference where they were repeatedly heckled and booed by Occupy supporters who accused officers of excessive force.

When the mayor asked for respect, one man in the audience shouted, “You put a gun in someone’s face, that is not respect, is it?”

Blue said he will review the use of force.

“But we believe our response was the appropriate measured response to a set of unknown risks,” he told the council, according to WRAL.

DENVER

Denver Police estimate they’ve arrested 84 protesters since the middle of October, the department told CNN affiliate KUSA. In addition, the city has spent $365,000 in the first two weeks of October dealing with the protests – and they expected to have an updated tally by the end of the week, the station reported.

“Dealing with an ongoing situation like Occupy Denver does create some staffing challenges for us,” John White, spokesman for Denver Police, told the station. “We have officers who have to respond from other districts. That obviously leaves a need in the other districts.”

But protesters told the station that police did not need to “babysit” them and the presence of officers exacerbated tensions.

At Civic Center Park Monday, protesters told 9NEWS police should not be “babysitting” them.

“Every time there is a march, every time there is a protest it is always peaceful and nonviolent,” protester Jason Ball told the station. “The times the tensions escalate, people become upset and [the time] there starts to become problems are when riot police shows up.”

Over the weekend, Denver police arrested 20 people amid scuffles that each side blamed on the other.

NEW YORK

Police in full riot gear moved in to New York’s Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning, evicting hundreds of protesters from the site where the Occupy call to action began two months ago before spreading globally.

Police handed out notices from the park’s owner, Brookfield Office Properties, that said the continued occupation posed a health and fire hazard.

Authorities kept journalists a block and a half away from the park during their raid. By 4:30 a.m., the Lower Manhattan park was clear, with city crews in orange vests sweeping up trash. The park’s owner said protesters will be allowed to return – but cannot camp out.

Since the protests began in September, the encampment at the park had taken on an air of permanency, with tents covering the public plaza from one end to the other. Protesters said they were there for the long haul.

Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had ordered protesters to vacate the park so it could be cleaned, but Brookfield changed its mind after it said it was “inundated” with calls.

The Tuesday morning eviction comes ahead of plan by the protesters to “shut down” Wall Street on Thursday – to mark the two-month anniversary of their movement.

OAKLAND, CALIF.

Occupy Oakland has cost the city $2.4 million, with about half of it spent on overtime costs for police and public works personnel, a statement from the city’s Emergency Operations Center said Monday.

Early Monday, police in riot gear moved into the Occupy encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza near City Hall and tore down tents. Officers made 33 arrests, the operations center said.

By late Monday, crews had removed more than 27.8 tons of debris and 8.2 tons of green waste.

City officials will enforce a ban on camping in the park with an around-the-clock police presence. But Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said peaceful demonstrators would be allowed to remain at the site around the clock, if they wished, so long as they don’t bring tents, sleeping bags or other “lodging equipment.”

The plaza was one of two Occupy camps in the city. The other, at Snow Park, remained standing. Jordan said police would not move against that camp on Monday, but added it could be dismantled later.

“The encampment became a place where we had repeated violence and this week a murder. We had to bring the camp to an end before more people were hurt,” Mayor Jean Quan said.

The decision to clear the plaza prompted a longtime friend of Quan’s to resign.

“No longer Mayor Quan’s legal advisor. Resigned at 2 am. Support Occupy Oakland, not the 1% and its government facilitators,” attorney Dan Siegel said in the post, which Siegel confirmed to CNN was accurate.

City spokeswoman Susan Piper described Siegel as a “volunteer adviser.”

PHILADELPHIA

Occupy supporters held a Monday afternoon news conference to respond to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who said the nature of the movement has changed and that the city was running out of patience.

A woman reported she was sexually assaulted Saturday night in a tent at the encampment, Nutter said. And “we’re seeing serious health and safety issues playing out on an almost daily basis,” he said.

At the Monday news conference, Occupy supporters said it was the city that was trying to force a violent showdown.

“We believe that the cynical use of sexual violence and health concerns, are opportunistic ways for the mayor to justify and attack our movement,” said one protester, according to CNN affiliate WPVI.

Protesters are also blocking a planned $50 million renovation at Dilworth Plaza, where they are camping, threatening jobs of workers on the project, Nutter said.

On Friday, the movement voted to stay put rather than move across to the street to the Municipal Services building because they say they didn’t receive all the information they requested from the city regarding the move.

“We weren’t able to make the decision because we didn’t have the information,” protester Jody Dodd said, according to WPVI.