Henry

With crime and violence atop the national agenda, one Member of Parliament is taking personal action to help in the fight against the monster.

Clarendon is racing towards its record 99 murders in 2005 and Member of Parliament for Clarendon Central and Minister of Transport, Mike Henry is seeking to raise $10 million to assist with crime-fighting and social development in the parish.

Clarendon over the years has been slowly steeping into a history of violence, holding the position of the most murderous parish outside the Corporate Area and St. James. It has already recorded one of the bloodiest murders so far this year claiming all of five people in one sweep in Water Lane, Lionel Town, on the southern Vere Plains of the parish, in what police said was a gang reprisal last week.

"There are 50 companies at least in Clarendon and I'll ask each of them to give me $200,000. They can spread over the year giving $16,000 a month," he said.

The contributions will be handled by the parish development committee, and will be used to help fund a programme that will employ youth fresh out of high school in administrative posts in police stations, in order to relieve police to attend to more pressing issues on the streets of the parish.

"There are students who come through fifth and sixth form and have five or six subjects, there is a gap in there continuity, whether they can afford university ... and I thought if we gave them something to earn them $20,000 or $30,000 if they live nearby you will be opening up an exchange of ideas and involvement," he surmises.