We are thrilled and stunned by the verdict but we want people to be clear we haven’t solved white supremacy and anti Blackness. The people must know that it was the people who got this conviction. We know that when we organize, we win, and today is proof of that.
Some thoughts...

This decision gives momentum to people to keep organizing, it gives us a boost of energy at a time when we’re seeing a bloodbath at the hands of law enforcement at Contra Costa country.

There is a danger that folks will think the courts will take care of us. The exact opposite is true. The State wants us to do just that, to go home. To think they got this & that our people will be safe. The reality is that every day the cops kill Black and Brown people.

The protests last summer led to the creation of the Reimagining Public Safety task force. This was a win for the movement. We started DefundOPD almost 6 years ago because we know we must reinvest in mental health services. When we first called for it we were laughed at.

But today tens of thousands of Oaklanders are on board. And as part of this budget process (from April to June) we will get reinvestment in community services that will keep us safe, such as violence interrupters, trauma responders, and mental health support.

Today our hope is that Black people get a chance to breathe. Even it's just for a second. We never get to exhale. We try to do all we can just to breathe. To take a collective breath. it might just be one, but it’s one. And we're going to inhale that today.

We spent so much time fighting against forces that tell us so much of our lived existence isn’t real. The cognitive dissonance that Black people survive under is damaging. Today's verdict is just a concession from a system of white supremacy, but we hope it’s a healing ball.