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Occupy Wall Street: Canadian Special Forces provocateur leaves wallet behind
Censored News
Sun Oct 23, 2011
Category: U.S. News
Area: New York
NEW YORK - Canadian Special Forces Agent Dylan Spoelstra, 24, of Toronto, left his wallet behind exposing his identity, after he was arrested at Occupy Wall Street scaling a sculpture on Saturday morning. The police said that after his arrest, he was brought to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after surrendering just after 9 a.m.
Occupy Wall Street media coordinator Thorin Caristo said when Spoelstra began climbing the reddish-colored Joie de Vivre sculpture in Zuccotti Park, on Saturday at 5:30 am, Caristo said he knew it was staged.
Caristo recalled the event, first saying to himself, "I can't believe he's climbing the sculpture."
Police arrived and began inflating airbags. Earlier, families had gathered on Friday at Occupy Wall Street with their children to camp, so it was a special time. However, police cleared them all out during Spoelstra's stunt.
"Police cleared out the families and began negotiations with the gentleman on the sculpture," Caristo said. "My own personal feelings that this was a staged event."
Three hours later, police took Spoelstra to Bellevue mental hospital.
Then, on Saturday night, Occupy Wall Street security found Spoelstra's wallet, revealing that Spoelstra is a member of Canadian Special Forces.
"Our concern is that this was a staged even. Now we are just concerned about who he was working for," Caristo said.
In a previous interview with Bloomberg news, Spoelstra described himself as "ex-military" and a "bartender."
Spoelstra told Bloomberg, published on Oct. 10: "I read about the pepper spray and clubbing. I have first aid training so I figured I'd just come down here and help out. I respect the cops. I worked for the government for half a decade so I will tell them I respect your service. But I'm on the side of the people."
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