Protesters said that late on Monday police had issued an ultimatum to return to their small original encampment by nightfall or be moved along.

Protesters’ tents have been set up in Dewey Square Park in downtown Boston all month but on Monday expanded to a larger section of the nearby Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

Shortly after midnight, hundreds of Boston and Transit police officers, some in riot gear, moved in, handcuffing protesters and tearing down tents.

Police said 129 people were arrested, most for unlawful assembly.

“At 1:30 this morning hundreds of police in full riot gear brutally attacked Occupy Boston,” the protest group said in a news release, adding that authorities “made no distinction between protesters, medics, or legal observers.”

Police said no one was injured in the maneuver.

“Civil disobedience will not be tolerated,” Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told the local Fox News affiliate in an interview on Tuesday.

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