Toronto police officer ordered to remove Punisher patch from uniform

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Toronto police say an officer faces internal discipline after he was seen wearing a patch on his uniform with the message Make no mistake, I am the sheepdog and a black skull in the middle of the emblem.

The skull appears to resemble the logo of the Punisher, a vigilante crime fighting character from Marvel Comics that has been adopted as a pro-police symbol in recent years. The officer was seen at a news conference outside Keelesdale Public School on Tuesday morning intended to draw attention to road safety issues as students go back to school.

Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said, The officer wearing the patch has been identified and he has been directed to remove it immediately. It is not approved, nor appropriate, for him to be wearing it on his uniform. This is now a matter of internal discipline, and as a result I am unable to offer anything further.

In the statement, Gray didn’t identify the officer citing the Police Services Act. That police were aware of the ongoing discussion on social media related to this issue.

After the Star’s Ben Spurr tweeted a photo of the patch, the Punisher started to trend on Twitter. There’ i also a small Canadian flag with a blue line across the middle in the patch worn by the Toronto police officer. A smiliar version, with the American flag crossed by a single blue stripe has been used in the U.S. as a pro-police image symbolizing the thin blue line.

The phrase on the Toronto police officer’s patch appears to be part of a longer motto, I may walk among the sheep, but make no mistake, I am the sheepdog. A U.S. website selling a shirt with the full motto and the American flag offers customers a chance to support law enforcement by buying the product. The message is to spread that law enforcement officers stand between the community and chaos.

U of T criminologist Scot Wortley was surprised that the Toronto officer was able to get away with wearing any kind of emblem on his uniform. Wortley questioned what message the patch’s logo was trying to send.

He said, If this was a message associated with punishing criminals, that is inconsistent with the role of what the police actually is. The role of the police is not to punish. The role of the police is to enforce the law and bring people into the justice system.