**4. Results**

#### *4.1. "Never Use His Name"—The Construction of the Folk Devil*

Pseudonyms for interview sources are used in the following sections to reveal the stories being told of Bindy Johal. Most dominant among the narratives is that Bindy Johal represents something insidious to the Greater Vancouver Area, someone who the community can collectively blame for the continuing gang violence. Not only has Johal given birth to the modern-day Punjabi gangster, but he personifies all the negative attributes attached to the risky Punjabi male. Retired gang enforcement officer John explains the significance of early Punjabi gangsters, like Johal, in transforming the gang climate in BC:

In the day [gangs] were very organized and there was a sense of, they kind of all go<sup>t</sup> along, it was good for business not to fight and war and they were making lots of money. But when you ge<sup>t</sup> people like Bindy Johal and Raj Cheema and some of these guys come into the game, they're just complete killers. There was no honor among thieves as there was. It just turned into murder and mayhem. (John, interview, 27 September 2016)

O fficers like John stood on the frontlines of early gang warfare between Indo-Canadian young men, witnessing the rise of gang members that he believed were far less honorable and more sinister than the gangs that preceded them. The honor system this new breed of gangsters observed contrasted with the hegemonic honor code of white men, their forefathers, or their peers—the Brown Boys. This more nefarious breed of gangster, of which Johal takes center stage, becomes the focus of a moral crusade launched by moral entrepreneurs like O fficer John. O fficer John believes Johal still has the ability to seduce young Punjabi males to gangs to this date. The framing of a threat as "new" or di fferent, and hence more dangerous by agents of social control is a defining feature of moral panics on crime, especially when they are transmitted by law enforcement.

Johal's folk devil status is further cemented through the apprehension some have in even saying his name, as naming the devil may legitimatize his appeal among Punjabi youth. High school teacher Simran makes a conscious e ffort to not say Johal's name in front of her students:

I also think that a lot of gang activity is glamorized online. Like I know our kids, like we're trying not to use the name Bindy Johal in our area. Every grade 8 kid is talking about him as he is some hero who defied the police and go<sup>t</sup> killed and his interviews are online and people are looking it up and these grade 6, 7 kids are always searching them up and bringing him up. So, one thing I decided is never ever to use his name or react to his name. (Simran, interview, 1 December 2016)

For Simran, the media has glamorized Johal as a hero providing the foundation for his admiration by youth. Simran's reluctance to say his name or react to it if mentioned is indictive of the anxiety a folk devil can produce, since much of the gang violence associated to Punjabi boys is problematized as the outcome of youth emulating Johal, and their keen interest in his life. Yet, not all display the level of apprehension in naming Johal as Simran does, particularly community activist Harjit:

Bindy Johal, his name keeps coming up, and rightfully so, because a lot of youth that contact me are still aware of him. Like, I'll go to high schools, twenty years after the fucking guy has been dead, and they're like: Hey, Bindy Johal, he's the man. He's the man. He put us on the map. Bro, he didn't put you on the map, he put you on the pavement. You're going to live a lifestyle that's going to ge<sup>t</sup> you shot or killed. (Harjit, interview, 29 August 2016)

Harjit believes that identifying the "devil" is a necessary step in order to delegitimatize his legacy, and to weaken the appeal he has to his admirers. The notion that Johal's lifestyle ultimately results in an untimely death is stressed by others in the community like O fficer Ranjit who works to deconstruct his legacy and accentuate the ultimate cost of his villainy:

We went through that initial iteration of these groups going back to the Dhosanj's and Bindy's and they became like cult like figures to these people. Like a lot of these kids want to emulate them and think that: "Oh yeah it's the girls. It's the power, it's the money." And then we're always hammering the other aspect: "Where are they? They're all dead before they're 25. So, if that's the lifestyle you choose, you know, it's grea<sup>t</sup> for a little bit to think your king, but where are you going to end up long term?" (Harjit, interview, 3 October 2016)

Ranjit appeals to the rationality of young Punjabi boys by highlighting that drive to make money, and to gain power, respect and women, ultimately comes at a fatal cost. As the reaction to a folk devil is of utmost importance to moral panic analyses, Johal's violent murder is often used to steer youth away from gangs. Specifically, the Truth About Gangs initiative has been used in local schools as a gang prevention technique, which involves police presenting pictures of a dead Johal lying on a morgue table with bullet wounds and tubes connected to his body to school-aged children (Bailey 2008). Despite the harsh reactions by teachers, these pictures of Johal are meant to shock and scare young Punjabi boys away from gangs by illuminating the consequences of gang involvement, and are a counter-measure to dismantle his glamorized appeal on youth.

In addition, Johal becomes a more fearful figure when his deviance is amplified, inflaming an already heightened moral panic. Deviance amplification by respondents occurs in two ways: (I) by connecting Johal's influence to specific family members who could have fallen prey to his influence; and (II) by associating him with some of the other 'evils' in the community, namely, the extremist Sikh Khalistani movement. The separatist movement, which resulted in the several acts of violence across the world, gained increase popularity in British Columbia, coinciding with the rise of Punjabi gangsterism. First, some respondents point to the degree of influence Johal exerts by drawing attention to how certain family members escaped his grasp. Teacher Simran discusses her husband's prior history with Johal:

Bindy Johal went to the same high school my husband graduated from. He tried to recruit my husband in grade 12 and that's a story he has shared with me ... back in the 80s and my husband went to the same school and he invited him, my husband, a lot of times to come to his house and [say]: "I'm going to introduce to these people and you can make money." And my husband didn't make those choices. He didn't really go. (Simran, interview, 1 December 2016)

For Simran, her husband was able to reject Johal's dangerous proposition and make the "right" choices. Had he followed in Johal's footsteps however, Simran believes that her husband's life, and by extension hers, likely could have unfolded quite di fferently. Simran frames the struggle young Punjabi men in that region faced at the time, which is their ability to withstand Johal's influence. Anita, who operates a community safety program, similarly personalizes the danger Johal posed to a family member:

It's really interesting from what I've seen. My husband's family, three boys grew up. They're all professionals ... yeah, a South Asian family. Three boys grew up. They're all professionals. They all went to University and my husband played football with Bindy Johal. Bindy's one of the most notorious South Asian gangsters and my husband was on the force and arrested Bindy and the Dhosanj brothers. Was on the Swat team for [name of police service omitted]. Was involved heavily with the gangs and it was really interesting when Bindy Johal was taken out, these police o fficers were relieved because he was killing a lot of people. (Anita, interview, 17 August 2016)

Anita frames her husband as a heroic figure, the model to which Punjabi boys should aspire, a position that is diametrically opposed to Johal's gangsterism. Heroes like her o fficer-husband played an important part in vanquishing the devil, and even felt some level of comfort with Johal's murder, because it brought an end to the horror and violence he inflicted on the community. Both Simran and Anita use personal examples to illustrate the scope of Johal's power, as they have first-hand knowledge of the threat Johal posed through the lived experiences of loved ones and the proximity they had to the notorious gangster.

Finally, Johal's deviance is amplified by being connected to some of society's other social ills. Activist Harjit draws on Johal's connection to the Sikh extremist movement:

You might not know this but a lot of the original gangsters, like Bindy Johal and these guys, their fathers were involved at a certain level, or supporters of things like Babar Khalsa, the Khalistani movement ... They were all for the 1984 retaliation attacks and stu ff like that. We're talking about a lot of the original gangsters, the Dhosanj brothers were part of the United Sikh Federation or sorry the Sikh Youth Federation. So, these guys have backgrounds in separatist kind of mentalities, or their families at least did, or they're involved at a cultural or even a religious level. (Harjit, interview, 3 October 2016)

Johal is a figure that is more frightening and dangerous when his deviance is broadened in such a manner. The Khalistani movement has a long history in Canada, particularly Western Canada, developing a moral panic over religious extremism, which intensified following the bombing of Air India Flight 182. This terrorist attack was alleged to have been planned and carried out in the Vancouver area by those associated with the Khalistani movement. By connecting Johal's father (among other gangsters) to the Sikh separatist movement, Johal becomes not only responsible for the gang violence plaguing the community, but is now somehow indirectly responsible for the community's panic on dangerous religious and political ideology. In other words, there is no better way of solidifying Johal's status as a folk devil than by connecting him to another source of a community's anxiety: Sikh extremist movements.

However, not much is known about Johal's father and whether he was indeed involved in the Khalistani movement. During the 1980s, the Babbar Khalsa drew much fundraising support in the Vancouver area from the local Sikh community (Purewal 2012). Considering Johal formidable years coincide with rise of the Khalistani movement, and that the Vancouver was the political and social epicenter of the cause, Johal's father may have had these connections to the Babbar Khalsa and other fundamentalist groups. However, the lack of publicly available information about his father has left room for Johal's legacy to grow. In this sense, the elder Johal's alleged activities have been absorbed into his son's legacy, cementing Bindy Johal's status as a mythic figure. Whether Johal's father was actually involved in the Khalistani movement is less important, but rather, the belief that he was a part of the Sikh separatist movement is an integral part of the myth building process as it works to further demonize the Johal name. This provides a connection to the rise of the Khalistani movement with that of gangsterism in the region.

These narratives paint a legacy of Bindy Johal that is steeped in gang violence, one that has been glamorized in the media and admired and emulated by a generation of Punjabi boys. Yet, this take on the Johal legacy is not the only one that exists; a counter-narrative exists that views Johal in a more sympathetic, and perhaps even heroic light.

#### *4.2. "A Fucking Legend"—The Construction of a Local Hero*

Johal's status as a folk devil overshadows a di fferent legacy that has emerged in the region, one that views him as a hero. As mentioned above, a source of fear among some in the community is that youth admire Johal, which some have referred to as the "Bindy Johal e ffect". Former gang unit o fficer John describes the e ffect Johal has on young boys:

I was a police o fficer in South East Vancouver, which is the South Slope, it's predominately a South East Asian community down there. So, for five years in uniform I worked in that area. I go<sup>t</sup> to know a lot of the young kids I met as teenagers, evolved into unfortunately, that lifestyle. They kind of followed in the footsteps of Bindy. Bindy was actually famous, somewhat of a role model for a lot of the young South Asian kids unfortunately. They didn't go after positive role models. They saw him in the news every night and they saw him as some type of cult superstar or something, I don't know. (John, interview, 27 September 2016)

O fficer John draws on Johal's celebrity status, and like their favorite athletes, movie, or pop stars, his ability to have youth emulate him. However, as indicated at the end of his comments, O fficer John does not know the source of Johal's superstar status, or why youth aspire to follow in his footsteps. Fellow police o fficer, Scott, provides a few more insights as to why Johal's entry into the gang scene in the early 1990s is significant, and why young Punjabi men were keen to imitate him:

We see this almost mythical evil figure in Bindy Johal. And Bindy Johal is engaged in the drug tra fficking field and he's up against the Dhosanj brothers and there's this video clip that I have of Bindy challenging the Dhosanj brothers on the six o'clock news and the Dhosanj brothers getting back at him and then there's violence. So, what happens within the Indo-Canadian community, and this is still to the day to a certain extent, that Johal's go<sup>t</sup> this sort of mythical following among young people, because he's this guy who basically he's not playing the typical if you will, traditional quiet, studious, law abiding Indo-Canadian young guy. He's breaking the mold and he's going to be the bad ass gangster. And so, kids really look at that and the glamorization and he go<sup>t</sup> away. (Scott, interview, 29 September 2016)

O fficer Scott makes an important point around Punjabi masculinity and how Johal's cult status was developed. As a local cultural icon, Johal stood against the typical masculine expectation of the South Asian man as framed by dominant White Anglo-Saxon standards. In the performance of masculinity, South Asian men are expected to be quiet and studious, an image that ultimately serves to subordinate their masculinity, and a baseline for which Punjabi men are evaluated and compared. Johal shattered this stereotypical expectation of the submissive Indian man by adopting a hyper-masculine personality through the gangster life. Consequently, Punjabi men were now constituted as "risky" or "dangerous", a narrative that some may have embraced as a badge of honor as it is more rea ffirming of their masculinity. Status-decline might be a common experience for many Punjabi-Jat males, particularly young boys dealing with racism and emasculation in Canada. Further, traditional means to preserve **izzat**, like land ownership, are not readily available in host countries. As Mooney (2013) notes, hypermasculinity may be one form of achieving **izzat**, making gang involvement for some Punjabi males an alternative method to gain power, status, and an influence for boys who cannot achieve it the way their forefathers were able to.

Having shared the same experiences as Johal, former gang leader and Johal associate Diljit understands the motivations of young Punjabi men adopting gangsterism:

"So Bindy comes along and he's fucking ripped with fucking muscles. He's go<sup>t</sup> 40 fucking pounds of gold around his fucking neck. He's just shot three fucking people and he's laughing about it on fucking TV ... It's an emasculated male driving around in a Corvette ... . Forty chicks lining up at a bar to suck his [redacted]. "Hey take a number. Take a number, girls". Guy turns into a fucking legend. In terms of race, it's really interesting in terms of race relations how these things ... how does this work? And it fucking made a di fference. Fucking white folks stopped fucking around with fucking East Indians after that. They we're like "okay maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut next time I'm thinking of calling you a Hindoo". When we sit down and think about race relations in this country and our community, shit we look at people like fucking Bindy and say "hey. Did he do something for our community?" Did he? Like moralism aside, put the ethical, moral shit, let's just deal with power relations. And so, when you look at South Asian young men today, this guy becomes fucking icon. He becomes a fucking god in the imagination of the emasculated South Asian male. All of a sudden, they're like "oh right. We can fucking do this."" (Diljit, interview, 15 August 2016)

While likely exaggerating certain aspects of Johal's life to ge<sup>t</sup> his point across, Diljit highlights two salient issues that need to be unpacked. First, a significant problem associated with the masculinity of racialized men, particularly South Asian and Asian men, is the perception that they are less masculine than White men, who hold the hegemonic standard (Shek 2007). Therefore, a consequence of a being hobbled with a subordinate masculinity is that South Asian men may be considered less sexually desirable (Balaji 2012). Diljit suggests Johal was able to overcome this subordinate status and stake a claim on the hegemonic masculine standard through a hyper-masculine personality, and as a consequence, engaging in hyper-sexual activity. While crude in his assessment, Diljit points to a transformation of both body and attitude that made Johal more sexually appealing as evident by the number of sexual partners he was able to attract. As folk devils are tied to a particular dress and style, Johal's muscular physique, gold jewelry, and overt sexuality became symbols to generations of young Punjabi boys as to how masculinity should be performed.

Diljit makes another important statement related to the experiences of racism young working-class Punjabi males were subjected to. According to Diljit, being called a "Hindoo", a regional derogatory term, along with bullying and physical violence was not uncommon for boys like him and Johal

growing up in predominately White, working-class neighborhoods. Indeed, the term Hindoo has a long history in North America, and was used to emasculate mostly Sikh and Pakistani migrants in the 19th and 20th centuries (Thangaraj 2012). As Thangaraj (2012) notes, discriminatory laws forced South Asian men to form bachelor communities, as "Hindoos" were viewed as perverse and subjects unsuited for full citizenship in their host countries. At its core, the slur "Hindoo" continued the tradition of demasculinizing South Asian men like Johal or Diljit, requiring them to respond through violence and gangs. Thus, similar to Frost (2010) analysis, for Bindy and young Punjabi males who followed, masculinity became a form of counter-protest to the dominant hegemonic standard that they could not meet due to their working-class, minority backgrounds, and the domineering racism of the time.

Feelings of social exclusion are often associated with racism. Anju, who works with several community groups and projects on gang violence, makes an important argumen<sup>t</sup> that ties some of Diljit's arguments together:

So, I think there's a big history of that and Bindy Johal, you know, was often excluded in clubs, while White people were allowed in. And so, he felt he needed, or others also of his caliber needed the bling, bling to gain more recognition. So, there is the racism that is manifested through bullying. There is the lack of recognition because of race, the exclusion and then the need to have this bling, bling compensates for that inferiority that's socially constructed around South Asian. (Anju, interview, 29 September 2016)

According to Anju, the gold and jewelry, which became symbols for Johal and his gangster lifestyle, were the result of this performance of a counter-protest masculinity. In order to overcome feelings of inferiority that were brought on by racism and social rejection and achieve some form of recognition, Johal and his followers adopted a distinct new subculture for the disenfranchised Punjabi man that provided them entry to spaces, such as nightclubs, that they were typically excluded from.

It is clear that the source of Johal's admiration lies in his ability to shatter stereotypes of the Punjabi male and achieve some level of masculinity along the hegemonic standard that typically eludes South Asian men. In other words, Johal is perceived to have fought a system that is unjust and unfair to brown boys like him. High school teacher Lena discusses the appeal Johal has with her students today:

They want to be known as somebody. They want to be seen as someone that is important right? ... So that sense of racism, they want to escape that and just be known, and wow Bindy Johal is important. And I bring out the name Bindy Johal is one of these lions, right? Legends in the 80s that kids know. They all know that person and they might not like what he did but they point to the fact that everybody knows his name. That he's still considered, right? He put the South Asian population on the map in a di fferent way and I think some of the things Bindy Johal said was about racism, it was about this idea of taking back the power. I completely disagree. I usually tear apart that argumen<sup>t</sup> in class but it's interesting to note that that does matter to some of our students. That they do want to be known as something other than just what the larger society sees them as.

From Lena's account, Johal's heroic status among Punjabi youth parallels the lived experiences of African Americans and expressed through gangster rap where "taking back the power" by standing up to racially unjust institutions like the police were common cultural messages transmitted by disenfranchised youth (Lusane 1993). Consequently, in a separate point, Lena mentions the negative perception the city of Surrey typically evokes and how her Punjabi students express being discriminated against as a consequence of the community they call home. While his criminality is not lost on these youth, Johal is a central figure in the local cultural zeitgeist, and glamorized in the media, according to the stakeholder narratives captured in this study for similarly taking back the power against a system that has left Punjabi boys feel powerless, isolation, and discriminated against in their own communities.
