When Justice Walks Away

When career prosecutors resign in protest, ICE acts without oversight, and Trump preempts the facts, the country sees justice abandoned, accountability erased, and power protected above all else.

Guest article by Michael Cohen

Editorial credit: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com

When there’s an allegation of excessive force, the rules are supposed to be simple, boring, and sacred. You call the Department of Justice. They show up. They investigate. They don’t promise indictments or absolution. They promise process. Facts first. Politics last.

That’s how accountability is supposed to work.

But under Trump’s ICE-first, facts-later regime, accountability is now a headache. A real, burning pain. And nowhere is that clearer than in the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

What happened here isn’t accidental. It’s structural.

For decades, when a law enforcement officer kills someone, the Civil Rights Division’s criminal section automatically kicks in. These are career prosecutors who spend their lives parsing law, policy, and evidence to figure out whether deadly force was justified or criminal. Sometimes they indict. Sometimes they don’t. Either way, legitimacy comes from asking the questions in the first place.

This time, the questions were never asked.

Instead, leadership in the Civil Rights Division declined to investigate. No findings. No review. No explanation. Just a closed door and a very loud message: this one’s off-limits.

Four senior leaders of the unit; the chief, principal deputy, and two deputies, walked out. Not for headlines. Not for ego. For principle. Because staying would have meant pretending this was normal. And it isn’t.

Within 24 hours, Vice President JD Vance declared the shooting justified. The President piled on with lies, claiming Good had “run over” the officer. Video evidence? Irrelevant. Verdict first. Facts optional. That’s not law enforcement. That’s branding.

Then came the procedural shell game. The FBI would handle the investigation alone, blocking Minnesota authorities from their traditional role. Local oversight? Frozen out. State investigators? Ignored. Evidence was centralized, the narrative controlled. Transparency was treated like a threat.

Once, immigration was Trump’s unstoppable talking point. The applause line that fueled rallies. The wedge issue that crushed Democrats. But late 2025 polls tell a different story. The country has moved. Popular support for Trump’s handling of immigration has cratered.

Approval for his immigration policies hovers around 43 percent. A majority of Americans now disapprove of his mass deportations, suspension of asylum applications, ending Temporary Protected Status, and workplace raids by ICE. Even independents and moderates think his policies are too harsh. The center isn’t just wary; it’s actively opposed.

And yet the response from Trump and ICE isn’t moderation. It’s entrenchment. Oversight becomes interference. Investigations become witch hunts. Career prosecutors who insist on doing their jobs become liabilities. Facts are inconvenient. Process is optional. Accountability is treated like a political hazard.

This is the part the public doesn’t see in press clips. If the officer acted lawfully, an investigation would prove it. If policy was followed, evidence would confirm it. Investigations don’t presume guilt; they protect legitimacy. Only those afraid of the truth try to prevent anyone from looking.

The resignations are a flare in the night sky. Civil Rights Division prosecutors don’t quit lightly. They know the difference between tough calls and political interference. Walking away was their way of saying: this department has crossed a line.

And this isn’t an isolated incident. Earlier this year, public corruption prosecutors resigned rather than drop a politically useful case. Different office. Same pattern. The law applies until it becomes inconvenient. Then it gets bent, buried, or ignored.

Trump’s defenders claim this is about protecting law enforcement. That’s nonsense. Shielding agencies from scrutiny doesn’t strengthen them; it corrodes them. Real law enforcement depends on public trust, and public trust depends on accountability.

This isn’t just about Renee Good, though her name deserves to be remembered. It’s about whether ICE operates under the law; or inside a protective bubble where loyalty matters more than legality.

Because once you decide not to investigate, you’re not preserving justice.

You’re letting power write the verdict; and justice gets buried alive.

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