Clarendon custos wants more JPs
CLARENDON CUSTOS William Shagoury is calling for more citizens to offer themselves for service as justices of the peace in Clarendon.
Shagoury made the request as 40 new JPs were commissioned into service during a ceremony on Thursday at the St Gabriels’ Anglican Church Hall on Church Street in May Pen.
The custos revealed that with the new additions, the parish now has 466 JPs but still needs another 400.
Shagoury also used the opportunity to warn those who were being commissioned to be careful about the documents they sign as, he said, there are many persons who will try to beat the system.
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, keynote speaker at the ceremony, urged the newly appointed JPs to be of “unblemished character and unquestionable integrity”.
“We have too many gangsters, gunmen, [and] criminals who are leading our people down the wrong path, capturing our young men and women, abusing them and misleading them into criminality and into indiscipline and creating major havoc in our country,” Chuck said.
The justice minister added that the time has come for the “right-thinking, civilised people to take back the country and stop it from being destroyed”.
Citing the many instances in which wrongdoers have been able to “beat the system” in acquiring multiple identifications in different names, Chuck said he was looking forward to the implementation of the National Identification System (NIDS), which, he said, would cause many people to be exposed.
“NIDS is going to cause a number of persons to be found out [as] data will be used to show those with more than one passport,” he said, encouraging JPs to stand firm and stand up for what is right.
“We have too many gangsters, gunmen, [and] criminals who are leading our people down the wrong path, capturing our young men and women, abusing them and misleading them into criminality ... “