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Solvay police display a decal of the Punisher, an anti-hero comic book and TV, movie character who is a vigilante.

(Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com)

Solvay, N.Y. -- The

patrol vehicles are sporting a skull-shaped decal that's a symbol of a popular comic book character who is a vigilante who fights crime.

"It's the Punisher symbol of the Marvel comic book character," explained

The Punisher decal on a Solvay police car.

Chief Allen Wood, Tuesday afternoon. "But it's got the thin blue flag symbol colored over the skull."



The thin blue line shows the unity of the police, he said. The decals were added to the cars several months ago.

The Punisher is a vigilante who first appeared in Marvel comics in 1974 and is soon to appear in a Netflix's series. The character's name is Frank Castle, a war veteran and a United States Marine Corps sniper. Castle becomes The Punisher after his wife and two children are killed by the mob when they witnessed a killing in New York's Central Park.

The Punisher wages a one-man war on crime using murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence, and torture.



Putting The Punisher decal on the cars is "not a big thing. The colors are to represent the police and the unity of the thin blue line," Wood said. "The Punisher, he dealt with bad guys, and that's how we are."



But, the chief added later, "we do our jobs. We're not vigilantes."

The Punisher's creator Gerry Conway in February said his character isn't a good model for police departments after another department used the skull decals.

"He's a complex morally compromised anti-hero, not to be emulated by cops," Conway, wrote on Twitter in February.



The members of Solvay police department were offered several different decals to choose from to put on their vehicles, and they chose this one, the chief said. Other police departments and the military have also put The Punisher's symbol on their equipment, Wood said.



The chief, however, didn't run the decal past Solvay Mayor Ron Benedetti.



The mayor told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard he hasn't seen the decal, and only found out about it in an email from someone who questioned it.

"I'm looking into this and if I feel it's inappropriate it will be coming off," Benedetti said.

The mayor said he should have been notified first about any plans to put decals on the village's police cars. Benedetti said he plans to meet with the chief and the department to discuss the logo.



Lee Turner said he emailed the mayor after seeing the logo on a Solvay police car Monday when he went to his bank.



"I saw a Solvay police car, an SUV. I noticed it was stealth like, a black car with dark gray lettering," said the retired music teacher. On the back of the vehicle was a small image of a "black, white and blue kind of skull thing. I had no idea what it was, but I thought it was odd on a police car."



When he called the Solvay department to ask, the person who answered told him it was the logo for The Punisher, Turner said. He googled the character.



"It's kind of like the judge and jury. It's not something that would make me warm up to a police department," said Turner who lives in Marcellus. "I think it's definitely sending the wrong message. I have no idea why they would think that would be good public relations for the (village). I can't think that there's that many bad things in Solvay that you have to have Punisher on police cars."

The 16-person Solvay department, including the chief, which patrols the 1.56 square mile village of 6,500 people just west of Syracuse isn't the first department to put Punisher decals on its cars.



Putting The Punisher decal on police cars set off a controversy in February in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where the logo decorated the hoods of patrol cars. The logos were pulled after the public complained.





Jon Bernthal appears as The Punisher on Marvel's Netflix original series 'Daredevil.' Jon Bernthal appears as The Punisher on Marvel's Netflix original series 'Daredevil.'

Punisher creator Gerry Conway, who also writes The Amazing Spiderman and is a prolific Twitter writer, commented on the controversy in Kentucky.

He's a complex morally compromised anti-hero, not to be emulated by cops https://t.co/VYFQsGZ4B9 — Gerry Conway (@gerryconway) February 24, 2017

As Castle himself said in my recent Punisher Annual story, “I'm not a good man.” https://t.co/VYFQsGZ4B9 — Gerry Conway (@gerryconway) February 24, 2017

If a cop killed an innocent man and tried to cover it up, Frank might not hesitate to kill him. Not someone police should root for. https://t.co/VYFQsGZ4B9 — Gerry Conway (@gerryconway) February 24, 2017



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