Critics of America’s criminal justice system have plenty to criticize. Policing gets the most headlines these days, but the men and women who dedicate their careers to fixing the system focus at least as much attention on prosecution and imprisonment.

And so in a moment when “abolish the police” is becoming a liberal mantra, you would expect “rein in the prosecutors” to be the sister cause. But life’s more complicated than that. Currently, the most famous criminal defendants in America may be police — namely Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, under whose knee George Floyd met his fate in May.