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Jon Bernthal knows his audience.
Immediately upon being given the floor, hegavea very specific shout-out.
On Friday, cops and soldiers will get to see Bernthals latest effort to make good on that promise.
If youre innocent, hes your protector; if youre guilty, make peace with your god.
Marine Corps veteran Christopher Neff plans to take the day off of work so he can binge it all.
Frank Castle is the ultimate definition of Occams razor for the military, he says.
Dont worry about uniforms, inspections, or restrictive rules of engagement.
Find the bad guys.
Kill the bad guys.
Jesse Murrieta is just as excited.
Marshals, and doing freelance security work, and hes a Punisher addict.
Like Neff, Murrieta sees an element of wish fulfillment in the character.
Frank Castle does to bad guys and girls what we sometimes wish we could legally do, he says.
Welcome to the world of uniformed Punisher fans.
As far as fandoms go, its a controversial one.
The symbolism has eventrickled downto American-trained Iraqi security forces and militias.
Plus, the Punisher doesnt have to deal with paperwork.
As Marine vet Matt Salvatico puts it, He has a job to do and he does it.
No political correctness, no rules other than his own, he just does what needs to be done.
Others find this kind of embrace to be in bad taste at best, downright scary at worst.
The job of a police officer is to uphold the law, to serve and protect.
The Punisher kills people he feels deserve it.
Conway portrayed Frank as a Marine from his very first appearance in 1974sThe Amazing Spider-ManNo.
Its complicated, and he works through that in his own way.
Talk to cops and soldiers and theyll tell you they understand all that.
There is no place for a Punisher in society, says J.D.
Williams, a Marine vet and current sheriffs deputy whos been a Punisher fan since childhood.
That said, some of the qualities that the Punisher has are very admirable.
Strength, tenacity, perseverance, decisiveness.
Yeah, it might, but theres somebody else to step up and take their place.
Punisher, in a fantasy-throw in way, thats the badass guy you want to be.
You dont have no rules you have to follow or anything.
Its just your own moral code, he says.
They like watching that guy, and go, No ones going to write him up for that.
They look at that as kind of wanting his job, without the whole dead-family thing.
All of that said, not everyone in law enforcement and the military consider the characters nuances.
Some just think the skull looks badass.
Chris Kyle had a similarly simplistic fetish for the skull.
We all thought what the Punisher did was cool: He righted wrongs.
He killed bad guys.
He made wrongdoers fear him, Kyles memoir reads.
And we spray-painted it on every building or wall we could.
We wanted people to know,Were here and we want to fuck with you.
More serious fans understand that hunger, even if they dont entirely share it.
With the Punisher, we get to see that justice is done to those who deserve it.
He thinks blind patriotism a quality that Frank lacks is the bigger danger.
Military members are probably more violent and aggressive.
Id be surprised if data said otherwise.
But I dont think that has to do with the superhero genre.
I blame the media selling and supporting war.
Fans with that viewpoint will find much to love in the Netflix show.
If Ive created a guy who lionizes [violence], Ive failed miserably, Bernthaltoldthe Los AngelesTimes.
I dont want you to look at him and say, This guys clearly a hero.
Thats never how Ive looked at him, and thats never been the purpose.
Its anacutely delicate timeto tell the story of a disgruntled man who goes on shooting sprees.
General population have a misunderstanding of Frank Castle/Punisher fans, says Murrieta.
We believe in you, one of them says while pointing to a Punisher-skull sticker on his car.
Frank rips the sticker off and says, Were not the same.
You took an oath to uphold the law.
I gave all that up a long time ago.
You dont do what I do.
A cop replies, Like it or not, you started something.
You showed us how its done.
