Yes, celebrate Derek Chauvin’s conviction, but we’re not done. Not by a long shot. | Jenice Armstrong

I can breathe now.

My jaw is starting to unclench. For now, I’ve put aside the anger that’s been bottled up inside me since last May and that gets triggered each and every time I see the video of ex-cop Derek Chauvin with that cold, heartless expression on his face as he kneels on George Floyd’s neck.

I feel like running outside and jumping up and down in the middle of the street to celebrate that our seriously flawed justice system didn’t side with law enforcement as it too often does. This is good news for a change, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I am relieved.

Today, we rejoice. We laugh. We cry tears of joy. We overdose on cable news coverage and jawbone about where we were and what we were doing when the verdict was announced. I’m praying that the streets remain calm and revelers here and around the country stay positive as they come together and celebrate the jury’s verdict.

» READ MORE: The Derek Chauvin verdict is in. These are the lessons of this painful year, and where to go from here. | Elizabeth Wellington

But tomorrow, we need to get back to the business of advocating for real change in policing in this country. What happened Tuesday afternoon is a cause for exhaling — whoosah — but we’re not done.

Not by a long shot.

Excuse the cliché, but Tuesday’s verdict is like a proverbial Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

The fact that Chauvin knew he could kneel on Floyd’s neck like that in full view of other members of the Minneapolis police force who didn’t intervene is illustrative of how far we need to go when it comes to training cops.

Tuesday’s victory won’t change the fact that we still have racist police who use excessive force against African Americans like that now-ex-cop in Virginia who pepper-sprayed a Black Army officer during a traffic stop earlier this month.

In fact, this might even spur some members of law enforcement to exact revenge for what has transpired. The sight of Chauvin being handcuffed and escorted from that Minneapolis courtroom might be too much for some of them to take. Police officers around the country need better training in implicit bias and antiracism as well as in how to deal with people with mental illness, as we saw in the Walter Wallace Jr. case in October.

This isn’t over. Expect Chauvin’s lawyers to clog up the courts filing multiple appeals. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in about eight weeks and faces up to 40 years in prison. If the judge sentences him to the maximum time allowed under the law, Chauvin could wind up dying in prison.

Here’s hoping that the successful conviction of this killer cop will be the first of more to come, beginning with his accomplices from that awful day last May when Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck and snuffed the life out of him.

We need to build on this so that what happened to Floyd will never happen again and if it does, we won’t walk around shocked when justice prevails. It’s past time to change the way police officers are trained and how some officers behave when dealing with Black people.

Doctors, lawyers, and even some journalists carry malpractice insurance. Going forward, police should be required to have it, too.

Meanwhile, the case involving the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, whom police in Minnesota shot and killed during a traffic stop this month, is still awaiting adjudication.

Also, the Louisville police officers who fatally wounded Breonna Taylor during a raid in March 2020 on her apartment still haven’t been brought to justice. And the case involving Ahmaud Arbery, a Black male runner wrongfully pursued and shot a month earlier in Georgia by a white former police officer and his son, still is pending. It took way too long for law enforcement to circle back and make an arrest.

Floyd’s death sparked the largest demonstrations against police brutality that this country has ever seen. May Chauvin’s conviction encourage activists to keep pushing until widespread reform is enacted.