DSP Owen Brown, May Pen police (stationed in Clarendon since 2011):

“It is a compilation of a number of factors, the main one is that we have not learned to deal with our differences. There are also too many people, who ‘see and blind, hear and deaf’ until it gets to their doors and reality hits. Most importantly, we need to forcefully discourage people who are involved in criminal activities because most times, it is the innocent citizens who end up meeting the brunt of it.”

Garry Knowles, pastor of the Toll Gate Circuit of Baptist Churches (resident of Clarendon for 15 years):

“In Clarendon, just like the rest of society, these things are the result of family breakdown, [and] a breakdown in values and attitudes. As a society, there is not much care for what is wholesome and what should be valued. Because that has been lost in society, the life of somebody is not seen as that much [valuable] anymore, and because people have not learned how to solve conflicts and issues, they are striving for power and wanting to inflict pain on each other. These are some of the things that led to events like that.”

Joel Williams, mayor of May Pen:

“I believe that our society has become callous as it relates to our young people. No longer do you have communities where people live together in harmony. And then you have outside players fighting for turf and other things, which do not emanate from within the community, yet their violence plays out in the areas and brings other neighbouring communities into disrepute, making it bad for everyone. But we have to make sure we do everything that is possible and work with the police to make sure our community is back to normalcy.