There's a symbol that got hugely popular among American cops and that is, at the same time, a legal time bomb: the Punisher skull — The Punisher, from the movie and the comics.
The character's backstory says it all: a cop who's nearly killed, survives, and goes out delivering justice with his own hands, killing everybody in his path. That kind of violent justice that's fun on a movie screen — and complicated in the real life of anyone who wears a badge.
From Chris Kyle to the vest and the backplate
The symbol gained traction in the military world. Sniper Chris Kyle's unit, Task Force Bruiser, adopted the skull, and the design migrated to vests, shirts, patches and stickers. Plenty of cops liked it and ran with it — some even had the backplate of their pistol (the little plate on the back of the slide) customized with the Punisher skull.
Then came the courtroom — and it wasn't on the criminal side
That exact detail is what came back to bite one officer. After a shooting, the attorney for the party suing the officer — the plaintiff's lawyer, not his defense — brought the movie footage into court along with the question: "Oh, so you're a fan of this? You want to be like him, go around killing everybody?" The idea was to plant in the jury's mind that the officer's intent, when he joined the profession, was to go out there and kill someone — just like in the movie.
And here's the point that almost always gets lost when this story is told: that argument was not used in criminal court. It showed up on the civil side — in the damages lawsuit filed against the officer and the agency. Two different worlds. In criminal court, the question is whether a crime was committed, the burden of proof is the highest there is (beyond a reasonable doubt), and the State is on the other side. In civil court, it's about liability and money, the burden of proof is a lot looser (preponderance of the evidence), and on the other side is the plaintiff's attorney — whose job is to build a narrative about the state of mind of the person who pulled the trigger. That's the opening where a symbol, a sticker, a tattoo or a social media post comes in as an exhibit.
It's what they call the optics — public perception. And it looks really bad. It doesn't matter how innocent the symbol's origin is to those inside the profession: in the hands of a good attorney, in front of a civil jury, it became proof of a "violent mindset".
"Symbols matter. What's culture to you can become, in court, the exhibit that nails you."
Who's talking here: Eliel Teixeira and Edwin Wu are active-duty police officers in the Los Angeles area, California — Brazilian-born, American citizens, with long careers in law enforcement. On Palavrão Tático, they talk cop to cop, for officers and enthusiasts, with no translation into civilian language.
Heads up: everything described here applies to California rules — and, on several points, to each one's specific department. In other US states (Florida, Texas, New York…) the rules can be very different.
Watch this part of the episode:
How movies and symbols (the Punisher) shape what the jury sees — starting at 0:00 · Palavrão Tático
This article is a reference edition of episode 41 of Palavrão Tático and is subject to edits and editorial additions. For the full conversation, watch the episode. — Updated on 09/08/2026.
