The Punisher and the Regime

A lot of insane things happened this week.

ICE stormed an apartment building in Chicago using unmarked trucks and a helicopter. The agency broke down doors (allegedly without warrants) and dragged people — including U.S. citizens and children — out in zip ties.

Violence against protesters at ICE facilities escalated, especially at the Broadview facility in suburban Chicago, with agents arresting local officials and using tear gas, pepper balls, and body slams against activists and journalists.

One viral video showed ICE agents firing pepper balls at a praying Presbyterian minister, striking him in the head. In another, U.S. House candidate Kat Abughazaleh was thrown to the ground as she attempted to keep another protester from being run over by an ICE van.

In Franklin Park, an agent also shot and killed a driver who ICE said tried to ram a vehicle during a traffic stop. Initially, ICE claimed that one of its agents had been seriously injured in the incident; later-released Franklin Park police bodycams captured audio of the injured agent describing his wounds as “nothing major.”

The President, meanwhile, attempted to 1) activate the Oregon National Guard in Portland, 2) activate the California and Texas National Guards and send them to Oregon, and 3) deploy the Texas National Guard in Chicago.

For the moment, a Federal Judge has halted any federalized Guard deployments into Oregon, but as of this writing, Texas National Guard soldiers have arrived at an Army Reserve training center in Elwood, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.

In a week of escalating state violence, the FBI director’s choice of iconography might seem trivial—but it reveals how the regime sees itself and its relationship to citizens.

As Charlie Sykes explains,

Challenge coins — sometimes known as “Commander’s Coins” — are typically used in the military (and other agencies) as tokens symbolizing pride in the unit and are often handed out as signs of respect, good will, or in recognition of a job well done.

In contrast, Patel's coin features the stylized "death's head" symbol of The Punisher.

For those unfamiliar, in the Marvel universe, the Punisher (aka Frank Castle) is a mass-murdering vigilante anti-hero who kills every "criminal" he encounters and has total contempt for the law. He was created initially in 1974 as a throwaway character to serve as a foil and sometimes antagonist for Spider-Man and other heroes, but he developed his own fan base.

Over the years, Punisher symbolism grew increasingly popular among some military and police, and in far-right circles. The Punisher's death's head was widely seen on flags at the January 6th riots.

Marvel Comics has repeatedly condemned the symbol's appropriation and redesigned it after the riots.

As a comic book nerd in the 80s, I was an occasional Punisher fan; he was cool, he used guns to kill bad guys. Seeing his skull on government-issued coins makes me see the character a little differently.

Earlier this year, Chris Miller of Screen Rant pointed out the apparent irony of the character's popularity among military and police:

To put it plainly, the Punisher hates the police. He hates the justice system. He hates politicians. He hates the government. That is who Frank Castle really is, no matter how you cut it.

During the 2020 George Floyd protests, however,

Police, veterans, and far-right conspiracy theorists began merging the logo with other prominent right-leaning iconography such as the “thin blue line.”

In short, according to Miller, the skull represents punishment of corrupt systems, and its adoption by establishment supporters is a fundamental misinterpretation.

I think, however, this is a much too-generous reading of both the Punisher as a character and his far-right fans. To put a finer point on it, Frank Castle has utter contempt not just for corrupt systems, but for the rule of law itself, specifically.

From Captain America #241:

PUNISHER: We have no reason to fight, Captain! I want to end the battle to rid our cities of criminal vermin… like the man you’re protecting.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Punisher, listen! You can’t kill those mob bosses in cold blood. Even they have rights!

PUNISHER: “RIGHTS?! They gave up their rights when they chose the path of crime! Now it’s my job to punish them… AND THE PUNISHER NEVER MISSES!”

In a story arc spanning Spectacular Spider-Man #81 to #83, we see a recently escaped Punisher randomly shoot a domestic abuser through a window, fire on civilians for littering, and shoot up a yellow cab for running a red light.

As this happens, we see his thoughts:

It's gotten worse out here. Worse since they put me in prison. Since they locked me behind bars with some of the very scum I'd swept off the streets ... you can't expect civilians to understand that there's no place for legal niceties on the battlefield.

This comes shortly after he murders a house full of "junkies."

This is not "anti-corruption". It is a nakedly totalitarian worldview in which the enemy is not really the criminal as committer-of-crimes but "criminal" as a class of people — "scum" and "vermin" — as defined by the person with the gun.

(Apparently realizing that they had gone too far, Marvel later tried to retcon this particular arc as drug-induced aberration. I'm not sure if that helps, or if it's just dishonest sanewashing: smoothing the edges in continuity while leaving the ethos intact).

The skull says rights are meaningless, law is irrelevant, enemies are vermin, and violence is the point. I don't think you have to squint too hard to see why such a symbol appeals to this administration.