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Political Gumbo: All Messages Matter

Published on Monday, July 13, 2020 | 4:27 am
 

I’m still a comic nerd even after all these years.

And ironically, I had the very issue that featured the Punisher’s debut back in 1974 when the vigilante character appeared in Spider-Man and decided to kill everybody’s favorite wall crawler who was wanted by the law due to the crusade of Daily Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson.

Like I said, still a nerd.

It was a fun read for a 10-year old.

What’s sad is now grown men with badges that have sworn to protect and serve adore and worship the vigilante that was once depicting shooting at jaywalkers and speeding motorists.

The emblem worn by Frank Castle, the character’s real name, has become the symbol of the Blue Lives Matter movement, a movement advocating that those who are prosecuted and convicted of killing law enforcement officers should be sentenced under hate crime statutes.

In some departments, officers have even placed the skull decals on cars. In Kentucky, they used taxpayer dollars to do this, yikes.

No matter the message, symbols of vigilantism do not belong in the Pasadena Police Department.

Pasadena Police Chief John Perez made the right call this past week when took down a Punisher flag that had been hanging in the Pasadena Police Department for three years.

At a time when distrust and fear of police by Black people is at an all-time high and leaders in the department are seeking to assuage those fears as well as convince us that issues plaguing departments and communities elsewhere are not a common issue in our local department, the skull is not the message or symbol we need in our department.

The symbol is derived from the German Totenkopf (death’s head), which was used by the Nazi party.

Supposedly Punisher creators Gerry Conway and John Romita Sr. started off with the idea that the character would wear a deaths-head, but the idea progressed to the current emblem on his chest.

Sadly it’s not just police who are using it. Believers of the far-right-wing nutjob QAnon conspiracy theory, who maintain that there is a secret “deep-state” plot against Donald Trump, and JFK Jr is alive and about to show up any minute, have also begun using the Punisher skull, and have created merchandise including a version of the logo featuring the president’s haircut.

Talk about being punished.

The symbol was seen during the protests over the police killing of George Floyd on Fox News when conservative commentator Sean Hannity wore it, no shock there.

But it’s all troubling.

Gerry Conway who created the character with legendary artist John Romita likens its use by law enforcement with flying the confederate flag over government buildings.

“To me, it’s disturbing whenever I see authority figures embracing Punisher iconography because the Punisher represents a failure of the justice system,” Conway said in one interview.

He’s even trying to reclaim it and is calling for Black Lives Matter-themed Punisher art. Of course, the very people wearing it now will have a problem with it once Black people are wearing it.

After Floyd’s death, local protests remained peaceful for the most part.

A 2016 survey found that 78 percent of residents demonstrated belief in the PPD, expressed confidence in the department’s ability to do its job well, make decisions in their best interests, and protect people’s rights.

This confidence rating was higher than the national figure, which was cited at 60 percent at the time.

No one can say for sure what the numbers are like now absent another study, but using a vigilante’s logo could do irreparable damage to that trust.

Yes, police officer’s lives matter, Black lives matter.

But so does your message.

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