OCCU-Pies of March: Bankers vs Cops vs. Protesters

Contacts:   Barbara Ross 917.494.8164, press@times-up.org

                  Benjamin Shepard 917.586.7952

Time's Up! and friends make a meta-protest tour of Manhattan,

including cyclists dressed as press, police, students, and bankers.

Beware the Ides -- make that our annual -- The Pies of March!     
Wait, and this year it's the Occu-Pies of March!

Join the Time¹s Up! Occu-Pies of March Bike Ride

With special guest Protesters, Media, Bankers, and Police along for the Ride.

When: Thursday, March 15, 2012

What: Bike ride and Pie Fight: Protesters vs Bankers vs Police

Where: Start at Astor Place Cube, Astor and Lafayette Street

When: Meet at noon, Ride starts at 12:15 p.m.

             Ride ends at 2 p.m. for a pie fight between bankers,

students, and the NYPieD

Feeling a little betrayed by Big Bankers and the NYPD?  Then get on your bike and join us for the Time¹s Up! Annual Ides (Pies) of March Ride, now the OCCU-Pies of March, as we enjoy a tour of Manhattan¹s banks.   The ride will include everything one could need in a protest, including a few bankers, protesters, students, police, most everyone who has suffered as result of the financial crisis (except, of course, the banker who has only suffered protesters).

The ride will include visuals of theatrical mock police cars and limos, all powered by bikes, as well as protesters and press trying to get to the banks and novelty checks..and of course, pies!

"We paid the NYPD Policeman¹s Benevolent Association $4.6 million dollars, they should ensure our safety, even as we create the same risks which tanked the global economy in the first place,² noted Benjamin Rich, aka Benjamin Shepard, who will play the role of a big banker for the ride.  ³While we believe the NYPD should serve to preserve and protect our interests, we are also interested in improving our public image.  So on this ride, we will be 'bailing out' some of the hard working students of New York City burdened with bank loans."

Monica Hunken, a Time's Up! volunteer and meta-protester on the ride, notes: "The banks want to let us eat cake, while foreclosures rob people of their homes and strap them with debt."

But beware, as it is the Ides of March!  At the end of the ride a pie

fight will commence between bankers and the various players taking part this drama.  Who will be betrayed?  Et tu, Brute?  Join us...

For past Pies of March rides, go to: http://times-up.org/index.php?page=pies-of-march-ride

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TIME'S UP! is a non-profit environmental group that has been using educational outreach and direct action for 25 years to promote a more sustainable and less toxic city.