After some police officers were placed on leave over racist social media posts, the St. Louis police union asked members to protest the officers being taken off duty by displaying a particular symbol. The symbol in question? The logo of the Marvel Comics character The Punisher — a menacing stylized skull — with a blue line added to represent lawmakers.

The head of the union was asked about the logo:

The fact is, there will always be someone who finds fault with any symbol we identify with or person we choose to carry our message. The Blue Line symbol and the Blue Line Punisher symbol have been widely embraced by the law enforcement community as a symbol for the war against those who hate law enforcement. It’s how we show the world that we hold the line between good and evil.

This is an egregious misreading of the Punisher character. The Punisher has nothing to do with "the line between good and evil." The Punisher is a man whose family was killed in a seemingly random act of violence, and who responded to that violence by becoming irredeemably evil.

The Punisher murders people he perceives as evildoers. He is a bad guy. He was created as an echo of the Death Wish and Dirty Harry movies, which featured angry white men murdering people without concern for due process. And he is not a hero. Imagine if police in your area started to proudly display Hannibal Lecter mask stickers on their cars, or posted Timothy McVeigh's name in a place of pride on their cruisers. It's a celebration of a character who has abandoned the rule of law and taken justice into his own hands — a man who should be the exact opposite of what a police officer stands for.

The funny thing is, earlier this month, the Punisher character directly addressed this kind of misunderstanding. In the latest issue of his comic, written by Matthew Rosenberg and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski, the Punisher encounters a few police officers who have placed a sticker of his logo on their car. They tell the Punisher that they idolize him and his methods. The Punisher replies by tearing up the sticker and telling the cops that he's no hero:

There's no way this was planned, of course, but the fact that Rosenberg and Kudranski felt obliged to address the matter at all means that this Punisher worship has gone on for far too long.

Let's be clear: Police officers should not be racist. Racist statements should be investigated and the officers should be penalized for them. And police officers should not idolize the Punisher. Placing a Punisher logo on their equipment is a shorthand for the belief that criminals should be executed without a judge or jury. The Punisher sign should be cause for an investigation on its own. This isn't about good or evil. It's about respect for the letter of the law. Either you serve the law or you don't. There's no room for interpretation here.