If you can't see the problem with railroading a person on bad evidence, you're not the liberal that you think you are.

A little bit of background...

The majority of my time in DC was spent in the criminal justice reform space. I wasn't as educated then as I am now; but, I went in with a few law classes under my belt, a healthy amount of skepticism regarding "tough on crime" rhetoric, and a strong opposition to needlessly locking people up.

My mindset hasn't significantly changed. I've just been around the block a few more times now.

The thing is, I started that job in DC the same week as the George Zimmerman verdict.

There was already a weird cultural shift happening.

My whole life, I associated the "law and order" mentality with the conservative, extreme Right -- I grew up in Joe Arpaio's county after all. All of my fights with people in regard to over-criminalization, people being wrongfully convicted, etc. had been with Republicans.

Now, to be clear, I do think that Zimmerman made a series of bad decisions. If I had to make a bet, I would say that, if there were a bunch of cameras around, you could probably nail Zimmerman on something illegal; but, I said what I still believe to this day -- there wasn't evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't act in self-defense.

That was when all my friends on the Left went nuts, blocked me, insisted that the dead body was all the evidence that they needed.

I was confused at the time. I thought it was Republicans who wanted to throw Hispanics in prison with no evidence.

Still, during my time in DC, the Left were generally better allies on that issue. I got comfortable voicing my stance on criminal justice with the Left. Hell, I even met Van Jones, and we spoke on the issue briefly, and saw eye to eye.

The problem finally came into focus for me with Rittenhouse.

Anybody with one functioning eye, and a functioning brain saw that it was self-defense from day one. Still, the illiberal Left kept calling for blood. They wanted a clearly innocent kid to die in prison.

No matter how you put it, illiberalism comes in multiple forms.

If you're a liberal, you're fighting on all fronts. Everybody else seems to be devoted to the idea that we should throw political dissents in prison and throw away the key.

It also seems that people are incapable of keeping their emotions in check, or understand that some people are capable of doing it.

It was never a matter of me actually looking George Zimmerman or Kyle Rittenhouse as people. In the case of Zimmerman, it was never even a matter of me actively believing that he was innocent.

It was a cold, calculated evaluation. It was also a devotion to English Common Law. Blackstone's Ratio. It's better to let ten guilty men go free than condemn one innocent.

That's liberalism. If you can't see the problem with railroading a person on bad evidence, you're not the liberal that you think you are.