Occupy Wall Street Wikileaks Truck Confiscated, Possibly Lost By NYPD
Artist and Occupy Wall Streeter Clark Stoeckley's Wikileaks truck has been a fixture of the demonstration downtown since day one, often parked along the edge of Zuccotti Park and puzzling onlookers with its Wikileaks logo and "Top Secret Mobile Collection Unit" emblazoned across its side.
(Although not connected to WIkileaks in any way, Stoeckler has been driving the truck around all summer and filming his travels. Calling it "artivism," a hybrid of art and activism, he hopes his exploits will bring awareness to detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning.)
And now, thanks to the NYPD, the truck's gone missing!
Gawker reports Stoeckley was driving the truck early last Thursday morning when he was pulled over by police, not too far from Zuccotti Park, for having a crooked license plate and not using his lights while his windshield wipers were on.
After not consenting to a search of the vehicle, Stoeckley was arrested for Obstructing Governmental Administration. And when he contacted the towing company that was supposed to have the truck, they said they'd never seen it.
"I think this is over the NYPD's head," he told Gawker. "I want my truck back immediately. It was illegally taken from me and it is illegally being held from me. That is not courtesy, professionalism or respect."
He's currently working with the NYPD to locate the truck which he says also isn't at the city impound.
Stoeckley's lawyer tells Gawker he hopes his client wasn't arrested "unlawfully," simply for "refusing to consent to a search."
The NYPD was likely on edge Thursday as Occupy Wall Street protesters commenced a series of large rallies in celebration of the movement's two month anniversary.
They also had some practice that week confiscating, and promptly losing or destroying, protesters' possessions.
More than a week since the NYPD raided Zuccotti Park and evicted protesters, The Occupy Wall Street Library has yet to recover important Occupy documents and over 4,000 books-- and it's seeming less and less likely that the Department of Sanitation didn't just throw them away. The Occupy Wall Street Library is expected to hold a press conference Thursday to "address the destruction of the OWS People's Library by Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the 11/15 raid."
Those protesters looking to recover property from the raid must go to a DOS storage center on 12th Ave. and 57th street, where the press is not allowed inside,
One protester, Issac Wilder, still can't find a bag with over $5,000 in cash confiscated by police. Wilder also can't find the Freedom Tower, a device that provided wi-fi to the protest, and while inside the storage center, he took photos of laptops completely destroyed during the raid.
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First Posted: 11/23/11 10:00 AM ET Updated: 11/23/11 10:00 AM ET