Police arrest Occupy protesters in Los Angeles park

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Officers arrested four people at an Occupy protest site in Los Angeles Monday morning on charges of failure to disperse, police said.

The arrests came after some demonstrators held their ground in Los Angeles' City Hall Park, defying a 12:01 a.m. deadline to leave the encampment that had been in place for almost 60 days.

Earlier, Los Angeles Police Chief Chuck Beck told CNN that he hoped most protesters would leave voluntarily.

Protesters encouraged members who spilled into the streets to return to the park -- which some dubbed "Solidarity Park."

"Back to the park!" protesters chanted. Police in helmets moved in on the scene.

Crystal Page of Good Jobs LA, one of the groups working with the Occupy LA movement, said demonstrators did not intend to vacate.

"We are just prepared to stand in solidarity and to defy a raid (by police) as long as possible," she said.

Sunday night, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the deadline, saying "an encampment on City Hall grounds is simply not sustainable indefinitely."

He said the park is being vacated for repairs, and will remain open during normal hours for "the Occupy LA movement and other organizations that wish to exercise their freedom of speech."

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

In recent weeks, cities have begun clearing encampments, citing economic and health concerns.

The Los Angeles encampment has become the largest remaining one after police raided New York's Zuccotti Park on November 15 and emptied it of protesters who had been camping out for nearly two months.

CNN's Sandra Endo, Greg Morrison and Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.