Community Center

“We Admire Gangsters”: Bryan Says Crime Will Persist While Community Glorifies the Bad-Boy Lifestyle

Governor Albert Bryan Jr. is challenging the admiration given to gangsters in the Virgin Islands, arguing that violence will persist while residents glorify the bad-boy lifestyle rather than value education and responsibility. “We admire gangsters,” Mr. Bryan said in a video posted by Government House on Sunday. In the 41-second clip, he challenged listeners to compare the turnout at funerals for people who had been pillars of the community with the crowds attending funerals for gangsters. He warned that the problem would persist “as long as we continue to idolize the bad-boy lifestyle and not value education and doing the right thing.” Mr. Bryan acknowledged the difficulty of being a responsible adult, then added: “It’s going to continue.” Mr. Bryan said law enforcement could only do so much, placing responsibility on the wider community to uphold its standards. “And all we could do is do our best to discourage, monitor, arrest, investigate,” he said, adding that society ultimately...