[Criticism Corner] Would the Punisher Back the Blue? (Patreon)

So this is a video that I've been working on for a while on the backburner, but with the new season of The Punisher coming out, I decided to go ahead and move forward with this.  So with this being such a politically charged episode, I'd really like to hear your take on this before moving forward.

Hello and welcome to Comic Drake where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake.  Being born and raised in Texas, I see a LOT of Punisher stickers as I drive around town.  They’re usually on the back of trucks and are paired with one of those stickers of Calvin pissing on something and/or truck nuts

But lately I’ve been seeing more and more of this image.  It’s the same Punisher logo, but it’s now been adorned with the Back the Blue flag.  This troubles me not inherently because of the Back the Blue movement, but because of just how dangerous the meaning of these two symbols mixed.  It’s a little disconcerting and dare I say… “PROOOOBLLLLEEEMMMAAATTTTIIIICCCC!”

There’s a surprising amount of misunderstanding and misuse of the symbol so today I want to ask the question “Would The Punisher REALLY back the blue?”

- Intro -

The Punisher is nowhere near my favorite comic book character, but I enjoy him plenty and I totally get the appeal for other people.  He’s a one man army, nearly unstoppable, and lives by his own moral compass.  Plus there’s lots of gratuitous blood, violence, and explosions.  I’d be lying if I said that my dumb man brain didn’t get a kick out of it.

It’s no secret though that The Punisher is very important to cops and soldiers.  This is a point that Jon Bernthal even made sure to talk about in response to when he was first cast as The Punisher on the Daredevil Netflix series.

“Look, I know how important this character is to you guys.  I know that and I know how important this show is to you guys and I know how important he is to law enforcement, to the military, and I look at this as a huge honor, a huge responsibility, and I give you my absolute word I’m going to give everything that I have.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfT3y_qryH4&feature=youtu.be&t=1m27s)

It’s not uncommon to see soldiers coating their armor and equipment with Punisher skulls, an act popularized by former U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle and his comrades as detailed in his bestselling autobiography, American Sniper.

“We called ourselves the Punishers.  For those of you who are not familiar with the character, the Punisher debuted in a Marvel comic book series in the 1970s. He’s a real bad-ass who rights wrongs, delivering vigilante justice. A movie by the same name had just come out; the Punisher wore a shirt with a stylized white skull.

Our comms guy suggested it before the deployment. We all thought what the Punisher did was cool: He righted wrongs. He killed bad guys. He made wrongdoers fear him.

That’s what we were all about. So we adapted his symbol— a skull— and made it our own, with some modifications. We spray-painted it on our Hummers and body armor, and our helmets and all our guns. And we spray-painted it on every building or wall we could. We wanted people to know, We’re here and we want to fuck with you.

It was our version of psyops. You see us? We’re the people kicking your ass. Fear us. Because we will kill you, motherfucker. You are bad. We are badder. We are bad-ass.“ (American Sniper - Chapter 9: The Punishers)

The issue for me lies in that Frank Castle isn’t a hero and his actions were never meant to be something to be emulated.  Military and law enforcement personnel using The Punisher symbol is something that its creator, Gerry Conway, is extremely uncomfortable with.  As he puts it in a recent interview with SyFy “The vigilante anti-hero is fundamentally a critique of the justice system, an example of social failure, so when cops put Punisher skulls on their cars or members of the military wear Punisher skull patches, they're basically sides with an enemy of the system. They are embracing an outlaw mentality. Whether you think the Punisher is justified or not, whether you admire his code of ethics, he is an outlaw. He is a criminal. Police should not be embracing a criminal as their symbol.”

That being said, most officers using the symbol understand that The Punisher exists as a work of fantasy and don’t act upon it.  Former Marine, Christopher Neff, has said “Frank Castle is the ultimate definition of Occam’s razor for the military. Don’t worry about uniforms, inspections, or restrictive rules of engagement. Find the bad guys. Kill the bad guys. Protect the innocent. Any true warrior? That’s the dream.”  Jesse Murrieta, a tactics consultant that has worked a variety of jobs in law enforcement says “Frank Castle does to bad guys and girls what we sometimes wish we could legally do.”

Dream.  Wish.  As much as how they wistfully talk about willing to shoot first and ask questions later is iffy, it’s clear that they get that they  won’t do it.  Then again, there are some cops that think otherwise.

Milwaukee PD legitimately had a problem with a rouge group inside their department that LITERALLY called themselves the Punishers.  First reported to Captain James Galezewski in 2005, this group apparently wore black gloves and caps with skull logos and used more brutal and abusive force.  However, one year earlier a man named Frank Jude Jr. was beaten by a group of off-duty Milwaukee cops.  One convicted officer, Andrew Spengler, had a Punisher sticker on his truck.  Fellow convicted officer, Jon Bartlett, had a Punisher tattoo and was also convicted for trying to buy an assault-rifle similar to Frank Castle’s while he was out on bail.  Yikes. (http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/112982324.html/)

While these Milwaukee officers are undoubtedly a couple of bad eggs, The Punisher skull mixed with the Back the Blue flag has been officially adopted by entire departments such as these in Solvay, New York (https://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2017/04/central_new_york_police_cars_sport_punisher_skull_decals_in_blue_lives_matter_tw.html) and more famously, these cars in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.

In this instance, police chief Cameron Logan used taxpayer money to get this emblem put on official squad cars and I want to add that this was approved BY THE MAYOR HIMSELF!  I mean this shouldn’t be all that surprising since another sheriff in the same county posted this on his public Facebook page… Yikes.  The car decals were removed after public outcry, but the question stands if putting them on was alright to do in the first place. (https://io9.gizmodo.com/kentucky-police-remove-punisher-logo-from-cop-cars-afte-1792720736)

Obviously, I’m not a fan of this, but many would argue that the skull icon has taken on a life of its own, separate from its comic book roots.  To that, Punisher creator Gerry Conway said in an interview with Inverse  “People can tell themselves anything. I could have a bat symbol and tell people I’m celebrating nightvision. It’s a defense people throw up when they don’t want to be associated with the actual meaning of the symbol.”

It’s interesting that Marvel hasn’t taken legal action over these misuses of the Punisher logo as it seems like bad PR.  It’s especially weird since they’ve taken action regarding the logo in the past.  I mean in 2015 they cracked down on guns and firearm accessories being sold with Punisher logos without their permission. (http://morrisonlee.com/marvel-takes-aim-at-punisher-guns)

The questions at the top of this video however are “Would The Punisher Back the Blue?” and what these two symbols mixed together means.  I think it’s clear by now that the internet of Frank Castle’s creation was the critique how the justice system has failed.  There’s no doubt about that and frankly, people who think otherwise grossly misunderstand the character.  The Punisher and his symbol represent vigilante justice in its pure brutal form.

So Back the Blue.  On their website, the organization’s mission statement is that they want to promote healthy relationships between communities and law enforcement.  While absolutely none of these decals and other Punisher mash-up products are officially sold or associated with the actual program, people that buy and use them also seem to misunderstand the Back the Blue movement as a whole.  It is an officer's duty to serve and protect.  The American justice system believes in innocent until proven guilty.  The Punisher and police symbols exist in stark contrast with each other and if anything, this compound image represents the militarization of our officers.  That’s a pretty scary thought.

I definitely want to support the police, but this a somewhat personal subject for me as police violence is on the rise as of late.  People I directly know have been in unpleasant situations regarding officers abusing their powers and recently, here in my home town of Dallas, TX we had one of the worst acts ever in the history of law enforcement.

For those of you who don’t know, a man named Botham Jean was shot and killed in his apartment by an off-duty officer who apparently thought she was in her own.  I didn’t know Jean personally, but I know people who did and this hits literally too close to home for my taste.   Police who take it upon themselves to be judge, jury, and executioner have no place in the justice system in my eyes and the that The Punisher is seen by so many in the field as totemic and as a figure they wish they could emulate?  Well, even if they’re not directly acting on that, it’s a scary mentality and further makes me uneasy around the police.

I know based on how I look, that’s probably laughable and yes, I’m historically less likely to be affected, but the rise of violence worldwide affects us all and it’s something we ALL need to work on fixing by holding accountability.