“The hunt is on and brother you’re the prey.”
~ Curtis Mayfield, New World Order

By Catherine Austin Fitts

My guest this week, Junious Ricardo Stanton, was one of the Solari Report’s most popular when he joined me for Unpacking Divide and Conquer in December, 2014. A number of subscribers communicated how much this report helped them understand race tensions – and solutions – in the US.

A good deal of what Junious and I discussed in that interview revolved around events in Ferguson, Missouri. Unfortunately, we did not foresee such events moving closer to home: Junious and I are both from Philadelphia, only two hours from Baltimore.

Unbeknownst to many, racial incidents in Baltimore are a part of that city’s history:

“Recent Baltimore protests over the police homicide of Freddie Gray were about much more than the killing of a young black man. The legacy of slavery is deep in a city many consider to be outside the South. “The Monumental City” as it was known in the 1820s was at the headwaters of American human trafficking. That traffic’s structural violence turned African American sons and daughters, wives and fathers into human products. One in seven enslaved African Americans was forced across state lines in the following decade. In Baltimore black people were jailed, sold, and shipped in the bellies of merchant vessels. Most were stolen from families by slave traders. Austin Woolfolk was a mastermind of the market.”

– What Else You Should Know About Baltimore, Time Magazine, 5-31-15

This week, Junious and I will explore the history of corruption in our inner cities –  narcotics trafficking, mortgage fraud, enforcement and private prisons and “reality TV” media.

Then we will look at the real motivations behind recent events in Baltimore:

• Did authorities act to prevent this violence or was it allowed to get out of hand?
• Who would have benefited from such events?
• Have race tensions been exploited by these parties?
• How does Baltimore relate to the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other grassroots “ops” that play such an important role in “soft revolutions?”

Please join Junious Ricardo Stanton and me this week on the Solari Report. If you’re not a subscriber yet, you can learn more and become one here…

In our Let’s Go to the Movies segment Junious and I review The Wire, David Simon’s remarkably honest television series set in and around Baltimore (note: strong language in this trailer):

It’s the last week of the month, so look for my Money and Markets segment the following week!

Resources:

• Unpacking Divide and Conquer
• What’s Really Happening in Baltimore?
• Staring Down the On-Off Switch