Wikileaks Truck Recovered From the Law's Cruel Grasp
Artist Clark Stoeckley has been reunited with his long-lost Wikileaks truck! Turns out it was at the city impound at Pier 79. Its battery was dead and two new traffic tickets graced the windshield, but is in fine condition otherwise.
We spoke to Stoeckley on the phone as he was pulling out of the lot in his reclaimed truck, sounding relieved. He wasn't very clear about how the truck was ultimately found, and had to get off the phone in the middle of the call when the truck stalled, but the ordeal seems to be more a case of NYPD/city bureaucratic bullshit and general dickishness towards Occupy Wall Street protesters than any sinister anti-Wikileaks plot. Though the branding probably didn't help.
From what we understand, after Stoeckley was arrested last Thursday for Obstruction of Governmental Administration, NYPD didn't tow his truck to the lot they told him they would. Instead they left parked it on the street in a bus lane where it was ticketed twice, then towed to Pier 79 while Stoeckley was still in jail. (Not nice.) A Twitter user alerted Stoeckley last night that he had spotted it at Pier 79, but the New York City Finance Department told him he'd have to pay some outstanding tickets before they let him have it. (These tickets might have been the reason it was towed to Pier 79 instead of the other lot in the first place?)
Anyway, it's all chill now. Stoeckley said a friendly judge cancelled his tickets, and, according to Twitter, he's on his way to drop off blankets for Occupy Wall Street. Whew! I give it three days before this exact thing happens all over again.