The Punisher #10 + The Punisher #11

Now is a good time to get caught up on all the back issues of the current The Punisher title. With nationwide protests targeting homicidal police violence, two police gunned down in Brooklyn while sitting in their patrol car, and the recent release of the forward to Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA's use of torture post-9/11, we are definitely in a Frank Castle world.

The world of Frank Castle, a.k.a, The Punisher, is a world of jihad. But there is no "Allahu Akbar" in Frank Castle's world. The Punisher is a nihilist, a vigilante. He sees only evil, death and destruction. He believes in law and order, but he finds only deceit, brutality and corruption.

The Punisher's mindset provides an interesting insight into the police power structure. Crime is rampant, a demon out of control, and an overwhelming force is required to keep it in check. It is a Hobbesian mindset -- man is a wolf to man and a monopoly of force is required to keep the wolves at bay.

But what if crime isn't out of control? What if man isn't an errant wolf? What if the state of nature is more collaborative than Hobbes imagined?

Then we find that the violence, the death and destruction that Hobbes believed brought people together to form a state and grant great powers to a sovereign are actually the product of the state.

This is the key realization of Rousseau: War, corruption, hierarchy are products of the state.

In order for citizens to continue to accept brutalization and subjugation by the state, the state must convince those who it rules that it is protecting them from wickedness and horror. That is why in the case of Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, two protest movements that have recently arisen to challenge state power, both have been criticized for attracting society's scary underclass. In the case of Occupy movement, the many encampments dotting the nation's cities attracted homeless, some who were mentally ill and abused drugs. This became an excuse used by the Fourth Estate to reject the movement.

In the case of the Black Lives Matter movement, the murder of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos by deranged shooter Ismaaiyl Brinsley was promptly used as an excuse to call a halt to the ongoing protests against police violence. The Fourth Estate has provided story after story making false, scary comparisons between today's New York City and the white flight, fear and loathing, "French Connection" New York City of the early 1970s.

Given the portrayal of Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter by the mainstream media, one would expect The Punisher to gun down the protesters for attracting society's detritus. It would be a nice change to see a story arc where Frank Castle goes after the real bad guys -- the beltway politicians, Wall Street bankers, casino magnates, the PAC bundlers, the transnational oil corporation CEOs, and Saudi and Qatari princes -- rather than the usual street-level gang bangers, sundry hoodlums and crime families. I'll be waiting for that one.

The current Punisher title has Frank relocated to Los Angeles where he does battle with the Dos Soles gang. The Dos Soles are attempting to unify all gangs in Los Angeles in order to control the city. Towards that end, the Dos Soles gang has implemented a reign of terror.

I have cherry-picked pages from two issues, The Punisher #10 and The Punisher #11, that depict Frank's pal from the diner where he eats breakfast, a LAPD officer by the name of Stone, shooting a fleeing thief in the back and then embracing vigilantism when the owner of the diner is attacked by hooligans.

The writer is Nathan Edmondson. The artist, whose work I think is some of the best in comic books today, is Mitch Gerads. Check out the scans below to see what I mean. Amazing stuff.

Remember. It is the fear of violent disorder and mayhem that justifies police brutality. Be skeptical of the manufacture of fear, and we can begin to get some traction in our demands for a just state.