Pat Dollard

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Policemen in riot gear scuffle with protesters at the ‘Occupy Denver’ camp on October 29, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. Following a march by protesters, police tried to tear down some newly-erected tents at the encampment and and a melee ensued. Police arrested about a half dozen people and pepper-sprayed others before calling for reinforcements.

(CBS/AP) DENVER – A tense standoff between protesters and authorities near the steps of the Colorado Capitol erupted into a clash Saturday that resulted in a surge of demonstrators being met with police force that included reports of pepper spray and rubber bullets.

The situation downtown escalated when some supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement marching in a group of about 2,000 tried to advance up the Capitol steps.

About eight officers scuffled with a group of protesters, according to The Denver Post, and police confirmed to the newspaper that they used pepper spray and either rubber bullets or pepper balls to break up the crowd.

Denver police spokesman Matt Murray said protesters knocked an officer off his motorcycle and other officers were kicked by demonstrators.

Murray said seven protesters were arrested, including two for assault and one for disobedience. He said some demonstrators had received medical treatment on the scene, but no one had been taken to a hospital.

Mike Korzen, 25, said he was among the protesters whom police dispersed with rubber bullets and pepper spray.

“I was standing there with my hands behind my back,” Korzen said, using a water bottle to wash pepper spray from his eyes.

Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter of the Denver suburbs visited the protest site Saturday afternoon to try to calm protesters.

After the clash several protesters moved across the street to a park where a small encampment has been established. A city street between the park and the Capitol was blocked by police cars and a Denver bus.

In other “Occupy” developments:

NASHVILLE: State troopers for the second straight night arrested anti-Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by the Republican governor, in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol in Nashville.

And also, for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed the arrest warrants.

The Tennessean newspaper reported early Saturday morning that Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could “find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza.”

Occupy Nashville protesters – including many of the 29 arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Friday – returned to the Legislative Plaza that evening and remained through the 10 p.m. curfew.

There was no noticeable law enforcement presence for nearly two hours after the curfew went into effect on Friday night, while adjacent theaters let out and patrons filtered back through the plaza to their cars without being challenged for violating the restrictions.

“Nothing was done to them, they were not arrested,” said protester Michael Custer, 46. “But we are arrested while we are expressing our constitutional right to free speech.”

Once the theater traffic cleared, dozens of state troopers descended on the plaza and began arresting protesters and a journalist for the Nashville Scene, an alternative weekly newspaper.

Troopers arrested 26 people this time. All were charged with trespassing; two were also charged with public intoxication; and one was also charged with criminal impersonation, Department of Safety spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals said. The judicial commissioner refused to issue warrants for any of the charges.

Officials said 72 troopers were involved in the curfew enforcement.

“To see it from the other side is even more infuriating,” said Chip Allen, one of the protesters arrested in the first raid. “When you’re in it, it’s almost surreal. This takes on a whole ‘nother flavor.”

Protesters remaining at the scene vowed to return Saturday, even if it means more arrests.

The arrests came after a week of police crackdowns around the country on Occupy Wall Street activists, who have been protesting economic inequality and what they call corporate greed.