“We’ll meet you halfway…”

That’s the motto of Brinkley, Arkansas, a small town that’s about halfway between Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, TN.

Little Rock, where Bill Clinton served as Governor. Bill Clinton, whose administration started the Pigford black famers settlement that became so rife with fraud.

Memphis, the home of the Black Farmers Agricultural Association headed by Tom Burrell. The BFAA and Burrell who gave seminars teaching people how to commit undetectable fraud.

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,940 people, 1,543 households, and 972 families residing in the city. The population according to that census was 49.05% Black.

That would equal about 1,933 black residents of Brinkley is the year 2000 : 3,940 total residents x 49.05%

So, that’s a total of 1.933 people who could have possibly filed claims in President Obama’s Pigford II settlement, since you had to be black to apply. Factor this in: a certain percentage of those residents are children, so they would not have been able to file Pigford II claims. And some of the residents may have filed claims in the first Pigford suit, so they would not be eligible.

Anyone filing a claim was stating under penalty of perjury that they went to the USDA and attempted to get farm loan services and were unfairly denied. Since people weren’t required to provide any proof of this claim, committing fraud was incredibly easy. Just lie and say you went to the USDA and tried to farm but they sent you packing because you were black.

I recently released a list of the Pigford II claimants, so now we have some way to see if any of the claims seem suspicious. One of my readers did some data analysis.

So, in the small town of Brinkley, Arkansas how many of the 1,933 black residents-men, women and children-filed Pigford II claims?

861.

861 claims for 1,933 total black residents. Of any age.

But it gets more suspicious when you look at how many real farmers there were.

Brinkley is in Monroe County. Looking at USDA census date, between 1982 and 1997 (approximately the Pigford II claims period), there were never more than 49 black farmers. Forty-nine total, not just in Brinkley but the whole county.

Ah, but maybe the racism kept down the numbers of black farmers!

No. Because the highest total number of ALL farmers-white, white or otherwise-between 1982 and 1997 was…369.

In other words, if all the people in Brinkley who filed Pigford II claims are telling the truth that means that twice as many black residents of this one town attempted to farm…more than double the number that the entire county had of legitimate farmers of any color.

$1,200,000,000 in checks went out to Pigford II claimants last week.

We have no way of knowing how many of Brinkley’s 861 claims paid off.

DEVELOPING….