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 has “to enforce the rules that are before it.”
Government House’s accompanying caption described a community grieving again over the weekend and asked residents to consider what young people see celebrated. It called for greater recognition of education, hard work, responsibility and people doing the right thing, and placed responsibility for setting those examples in homes, schools, churches and neighborhoods.
The post appeared as the territory’s 2026 homicide count reached 40, according to Consortium tracking. A fatal shooting near the G-Max Service Station in Golden Rock on St. Croix on October 11 brought the island’s total to 23. St. Thomas had recorded 17 homicides, while St. John had recorded none.
Police Commissioner Mario Brooks raised similar concerns during the September 28 Government House briefing. Discussing VIPD’s 90-day crime surge, Mr. Brooks said residents who shelter wanted individuals, disclose the locations of police operations and embrace retaliation are undermining efforts to reduce violence.
