Yay America. You got it right on Wednesday. An almost all-white jury told Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan that is not, in fact, self-defense to hunt, corner and execute Black people because you don’t want them breathing in your neighborhood.

All three of them, guilty for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

For the second time in a year, the globe watched to see whether there would be justice for Black life in an American courtroom. The first, of course, was the trial of Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd in May 2020, resulting in worldwide uprisings. The result was a conviction. Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for kneeling on Floyd’s back for almost nine minutes while Floyd cried for his mama and said, “I can’t breathe.”

Not so on Friday.

In three courtrooms, in three American cities, the same familiar scene is unfolding. With arrogance, disdain, and even laughter, white men who have committed egregious acts of violence in the name of white supremacy are supposedly facing consequences. But rather than criminal trials—or in the Charlottesville, Virginia, case, a civil trial—we are watching how baked into the justice system white supremacy really is.

Today, the FBI shot and killed a person in East Oakland. We know that Libby Schaaf has recently brought in the FBI, the ATF, and the CHP into Oakland. We have expressed concern about increased contact between our communities and these law enforcement agencies.

Last week, in a Pinteresque public safety plot twist, the case was made that the Oakland Police Department should be granted early exit from the federal oversight they have been under for about two decades.

Not “early” because they finished the 51 required tasks needed to exit oversight ahead of schedule. Nope, that would have meant completion before 2008. “Early” because they would be allowed to exit without having finished at all. OPD remains uncompliant with five tasks relating to use-of-force investigations, internal affairs complaint procedures and investigation timelines, tracking stop data, and discipline consistency.

Scandal-ridden OPD still involved in ongoing litigation for tear-gassing children during protests last year

I am a gun owner. As a Black woman in America, I think it is asinine not to be prepared to defend myself and my family in a country that places a target on my back.

But my belief in the right to arm myself for the purposes of self-defense is not absolute.

On Wednesday, when Mayor Libby Schaaf let Oaklanders know that she worked out a deal with California’s governor to deploy the California Highway Patrol to conduct traffic stops on city streets, many people scratched their heads while the rest of us banged them into walls.

We all want safe streets. I am raising a teenage daughter in this city. I want to not be terrified every time that she walks out the door. Which I am. Bullets fly with abandon on Oakland streets.

But if we are not safe with a police budget of $350 million a year, what is the magic number that will make a militarized police department and violent carceral state work to create safe communities?

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office became a global punchline in the aftermath of a viral video, but the department’s consistently egregious behavior is no laughing matter. And efforts like Shelby’s to avoid public scrutiny are hardly the worst of it.

Have you heard? Oakland “defunded” the police. And starting July 1, all hell is going to break loose. The only problem? That isn’t true.

Since the murder of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station, the Anti Police-Terror Project has fought to redefine public safety in the City of Oakland. Today’s vote in support of Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas’s budget to cut police spending and fund crucial social services shows Oakland’s commitment as a progressive city to support policies that actually keep us safe.