Scans_Daily

The authorities weren't incompetent: they were disinterested. Cristos specifically has a cop on his payroll to make sure he has to deal with niceties like law enforcement as little as possible (and that cop is slick enough that the moment Frank Castle pokes his head into Cristos's operation, the NYPD suddenly develops an anti-Punisher task force.

The point of the scene as shown in these scans is that a lot of Americans don't want to engage with these issues at all. They're outside our "monkeysphere," to quote David Wong, and none of that is on Cooke's head. Ennis is writing about an actual situation, and an actual societal reaction to that situation. He didn't make this shit up off the top of his head.

In a story with these kinds of themes, the fact that Cooke is trying, and will keep trying, and is still alive at the end of the story to keep trying, counts as a victory. Frank actually respects her, in his way.

Short version: if you haven't read the full story, read it. It's in TPB and might even be in your local library system. If you have read it, I think you're misreading it and its themes if you think it's in any way contemptuous of Cooke.