How a racist email is key to the mystery of a Black deputy chief's sudden departure from KPD

When the Knoxville Police Department named Brooklyn Sawyers Belk as its first deputy chief of professional standards on Feb. 17, the hire had all the hallmarks of a surefire hit for the city. She is an exceptionally qualified woman: a highly experienced attorney and former federal prosecutor. And she is Black, a rarity in the police force's command structure.

Expectations were sky-high. She was taking on the monumental task of helping restructure a police department marked by a long history of endemic racism and sexism, and she was taking on the job of helping remake an institution weakened by widespread dissatisfaction with leadership from within the ranks.

Belk is no rookie and is Black excellence personified. She came in the door with a resume that ran off the page, including stints as in-house counsel for a technology company that worked with law enforcement nationwide, and chief of diversity, equity and inclusion for a high-profile private law firm.

But Belk was gone in a blink.

Four months after she was named to the new role, she told Police Chief Paul Noel she was quitting. Noel and Mayor Indya Kincannon have not gone into detail about what happened, saying only that they expected her to fill the role for only a short time.

The mystery remained after she left her post July 16. Noel and Kincannon have declined to expand on the reason for her departure. Belk also has been silent.

But at the center of Belk’s resignation, Knox News has learned, is a racist email she received just weeks before she left. In all-caps printed below an offensive meme about Black people, it called for killing "our real enemies who are anti American anti Christ Communist Jews."

Belk didn’t leave because she had planned to from the start. She left, she told others, because the collective response to the email left her feeling isolated, fearful and uncomfortable.

The email sent to Belk’s KPD address was interpreted quite differently among those who knew about it. The aftermath of how people dealt with the message illustrates perceptions of power and accountability and the challenges of combating racism in American society. When Black leaders are asked to take on the weight of fixing the same generational problems they are oppressed by, it can become too heavy, weighted even more by a lack of understanding by those who haven't lived the same experience.

Many experts say Black faces can’t fix white problems, and to try can be tiresome and traumatizing. Belk told confidantes she was in that sort of mix.

“Many times we see that different organizations are very excited to diversify and bring in a person of color at the helm, but they don't necessarily always have the infrastructure in place to support that person to make sure they have the tools that they need,” said Melba Pearson, a civil rights and criminal law attorney who works at the Center for the Administration of Justice at Florida International University.

The same dynamic plays out regularly in public and private spaces nationwide. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Black woman, has been flooded with racist vitriol after she charged former President Donald Trump on Aug. 15 in connection with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Some internet posts call for her and the grand jurors who indicted Trump to be hanged.

The racist email sent to Belk two months ago underscores how common it is for Black public officials to find themselves in the crosshairs of those threatened by their power.

The email

On the evening of June 11, Belk opened her email and discovered an unsettling message. It was vile, unhinged, designed to intimidate.

The email originated from an unknown sender and was accompanied by three offensive photos portraying Black people as monkeys, along with an image of former First Lady Michelle Obama. The language was disjointed and drew nonsensical connections.

“Below is your anti American communist Jewish diversity killing America. N------ look and act like wild animals," the email, written in all-caps, read in a copy obtained by Knox News. "The Obamas are racist and own by anti American Communist pig devil Jews like Penny Pritzker.”

The message from an anonymous sender set off the defining moment that led to Belk’s exit.

Belk was angry. She was hurt. And most of all, she was fearful.

Who sent it? How serious could the threats be? Did it come from the inside? And what was anybody with authority to investigate it going to do? How were they going to have a Black woman’s back who was enlisted to counteract the sort of poison coursing through that message?

Belk moved swiftly. It was a Sunday when she first read the email, and that night she forwarded the email to Noel and Deputy Chief Mark Powell, and copied city law department attorney Ron Mills. "Would you all care to address this please?" she asked.

Mills looped in Mark Parker, the city's chief technology officer, 11 minutes after he received Belk's message, according to a series of emails provided to Knox News under Tennessee's open records act. Less than five minutes later, Parker contacted one of his staff to start an investigation. By 9:41 a.m. Monday, the city had blocked messages from the email address.

But Belk was not included in the messages about how police and city leaders were responding.

Early on Monday, Belk addressed the racist message in an email she sent to the entirety of the police department.

“At this time the sender’s true identity is unknown, but the matter is being investigated to determine who sent it and whether it was sent from someone who works for the City of Knoxville,” Belk wrote.

Her frustration was palpable, and she did not hide that she felt isolated.

Belk pointed out she was targeted "as the sole person of color on the command staff and the very first known woman of color to serve on the command staff since 1791 at the department’s inception."

And she pointed out the critical difference in how she received the attack, a point that didn't seem to be registering with the people she was counting on to get to the bottom of who sent the email.

"(E)very employee who works here does not experience the department the same way. Likewise, every citizen of this city does not experience the city the same way. Some are faced with sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic vitriol that attacks the very essence of their being. Some of your colleagues and fellow citizens work and live in a hostile, unsafe environment not because of something they did, but because of their skin color, race, gender, religion, or life partner coupled with a determination made by some, not all, that they do not deserve to work for or live in this city, which is at the core of what the courts have termed de facto discrimination that allegedly ended with the end of Jim Crow segregation some 50-plus years ago. Such a conclusion is an interesting twist on the letter and spirit of the very law that the Knoxville Police Department’s authority is based on. The irony is palpable.”

On Monday afternoon, at 4:32 p.m., Kincannon emailed Belk. She told her she was sorry Belk was receiving hateful emails, and emphasized she agreed it was likely because Belk was a Black woman in a position of authority.

Kincannon pointed out that she also receives, as she put it, "A LOT!" of hateful emails and social media comments, and that it's common for "trolls" to target "women, particularly women of color."

On Wednesday, three days after Belk received the racist email and two days after she shared her feelings about it in her email to more than 700 police staff, she was clearly frustrated by a lack of information about what was being done. After receiving a message from the city's IT department asking her to forward the racist email, she emailed Kelly Drummond, the city's human resources director, who is also a Black woman, and copied Noel and Mills.

"It appears this was not addressed Sunday/Monday," she wrote. "I was not followed up with by IT. The below communication is the first I was told more information was needed because I asked."

It's clear Belk knew Mills had asked IT for help Sunday night because she references it in her email, but it's also clear she wasn't being looped in about what was being done to address the threatening email.

Mills responded to Belk an hour later Wednesday, saying he had not asked IT to figure out who had sent the email. Mills told Belk the city was able to determine it wasn't sent from inside the city's computer system.

It's impossible to know from the email record whether Belk was having conversations with other police and city leaders about how they were addressing the racist email, but it is clear she didn't know much about how they were addressing it and was not happy with the lack of information.

The resignation

Belk has staunch backers and supporters outside of the department. Former Black leaders within the police department, who were few and far between, had her back and knew what she was experiencing in her new role.

“We talked often during her time at KPD," said Joseph Huckleby, a former longtime KPD detective. "She said that she had gotten the email and that she felt like it was very derogatory and threatening and the administration appeared to not have been doing much about it or thoroughly investigating what took place. She told me that she had spoken to the law department about it but that it didn't appear that they were going to do much."

Huckleby, who served in the department for 27 years, told Knox News that during his conversations with Belk, he learned she even reached out to the FBI after feeling that the threatening email was not being taken seriously enough.

Huckleby said it is not logical to believe that Belk would walk away without serious cause from a position she was excited to take on such short notice.

“She is a person that fulfills her commitments. She would not have taken that job just to leave," he told Knox News. "Whether she or her family got hurt as a result of this email didn’t seem to really be of concern. So I feel like if she felt like her family and herself weren't being jeopardized, she would have stayed and she would still be there. They reacted too late, and what needed to be done was not done in a manner that it should have been to her knowledge."

Former Deputy Chief Nate Allen, who served for 30 years in the Knoxville Police Department, was KPD’s first and only Black deputy chief in the department’s history before Belk. He told Knox News that the way the matter was handled was both insufficient and incomplete, and that the department was not prepared to hire a Black deputy chief with Belk's background. Leaders did not prepare her for what she would face as a Black woman in a high-ranking position in policing.

Allen told Knox News his understanding of what led to Belk’s resignation, based on their conversations, hinged upon the lack of communication about what was being done to investigate the threatening email and to ensure the safety of her family. Though Belk was a deputy chief, she was not a sworn officer, did not have police training and did not carry a weapon.

“There's a big difference between a civilian working in police work and a policeman working in the police world. I carry a gun, so if you want a police officer all you have to do is dial 911 and I’ll go to your house," Allen said. "But a civilian doesn't carry a gun. They don't have police training, and that can scare them to death. These are the things you have to look at when you are dealing with these types of issues."

Allen said that the other fear for Belk was where the email came from in the first place. She needed to know it didn't come from someone within the department, and no one made it a priority to tell her even when they knew for sure it had not come from within the police force.

The problems that led to Belk's resignation started well before she received the threatening email, in Allen's view. Leaders didn't do the work to prepare her for the climate she'd encounter as a Black woman, even though it should have been obvious it was an inevitability Belk would be targeted.

Allen and Huckleby both told Knox News that racist communications and veiled threats were routinely ignored by leaders during their decades working for KPD (both left before Noel became chief). Huckleby emphasized that such threatening incidents demand a more robust response.

“The way I take her situation is, 'Hey I got this threat. I've reported it to the proper people.' Nobody has called me to talk to me or expressed to me that, 'Hey, this is what we did. This is what we're doing. Do you have any other information that you might want to add to it or anything?'

"It was like they just didn’t communicate with her about it being a threat at all. And I feel like she took that so seriously because she should take it seriously. And not only was her life threatened, her family's life was threatened, you know, based on the circumstances, and especially how things are living right here in East Tennessee," Huckleby said.

Allen told Knox News that the threat had not been eliminated, no security had been offered to Belk, and there hadn't been any conversations that made her feel understood and safe.

“These things continue to happen and they are the seeds of not being prosecuted," he said. "A thorough investigation should include identifying the target, go out and talk to the target and then put the target on notice. And then monitor the target.

"Then they should have brought Brooklyn in, sat her down, and told her exactly what they have or did not have. And most of all, then give her a safety plan. You know, we do safety plans in policing for domestic violence victims, so we can do a safety plan for an employee and do a safety plan for not only Brooklyn but for her family, as well."

Local criminal attorney Don Bosch told Knox News that through his nearly daily interactions with Belk, he understood that she faced challenges from within and without while she worked for KPD despite support from Noel and the confidence the chief had in her.

“While we often had adverse positions, as I primarily represent individual KPD officers with alleged policy violations, we worked professionally and thoughtfully through those matters. I found her work competent and thorough despite the times when she clearly faced unnecessary challenges,” Bosch said.

The response

When Knox News requested details about how Belk’s email was investigated, city and police officials declined to talk about why she left or the response to the threatening email she received.

City officials provided documents requested through the open records act, but declined to answer specific questions.

In a statement provided to Knox News, police spokesperson Scott Erland said the email was taken seriously, but it did not meet the threshold for a criminal investigation.

"That email was hateful and disgusting, a fact that we will in no way diminish. In no shape or form did we dismiss that email," Erland said in an email. "We reviewed the email for any possible criminal wrongdoing. As hateful as the email was, it did not meet the threshold for further criminal investigation, which was confirmed by the FBI after they took an outside, objective look.

"The reality is that email was the subject of much greater scrutiny than similar emails that are routinely received by government employees, including the vast number of emails and phone calls that numerous members of our department received in the wake of Lisa Edwards’ in-custody death. While those emails did not carry the same racist overtones, they were hateful, deeply offensive, and upsetting for those who received them."

Knox News sent the following questions to Noel and Kincannon that have not been answered.

• When Brooklyn Belk was hired were there any discussions with her regarding what she might be subjected to by virtue of her role as a Black woman in the institution of policing, and in an institution (KPD) that previously has faced issues with racist and sexist behavior within the department? How specifically did you or others prepare her for this role?

• After Belk resigned, Chief Noel said he knew Belk would be with the department only a short time. Did you both know upfront it would be just four months, and if so, why wasn't that made public from the start?

• When Belk put in her resignation, what efforts were made to retain her, if any?

• Was there any kind of agreement, formal or informal, that you would not provide details about why she left, and if so, who suggested that arrangement?

Belk received a hate-filled and racist email that prompted her to send a departmentwide email addressing it. These are questions Knox News posed to Noel and Kincannon about that email:

• Did she express to you or others that she thought it contained threats?

• Did she say she feared for the safety of herself or her family?

• What was your response to the racist email and to her concerns about it?

• Did she share with you her response before she sent it and did either of you discuss it before or after she sent it?

• What type of support or action did she deem necessary and what actions did you take?

• Was there an investigation done to find out where the email came from? Was the sender identified? Was Belk aware of any investigation being done and the outcome of that investigation?

• If there was not an investigation, why not?

• Did Belk say the email and/or the department's response to it led in part or wholly to her resignation?

• We have learned that Belk was not satisfied with the level of support she received or the actions taken in the matter of the racist email. What efforts were made to further address this once you learned she was unsatisfied and felt unsupported?

• Did Belk work in person at the department, and how often in what ways did she interact with you (Noel), with command staff, with captains, lieutenants and sergeants, and with officers?

• Were you (Noel) satisfied with her interactions and performance up to her resignation?

• What other challenges did Belk face during her time with KPD? Did she make you (Noel and Kincannon) aware of any other situations regarding racism she observed or racist behavior she was subjected to? How were those issues handled?

• Do you think Belk's short tenure at KPD might hinder other applicants of color from wanting to join the department and how are you addressing this? Are you concerned about that?

• In general, over Chief Noel's first one-plus year leading the department, how much do you perceive KPD's culture has changed, and how do you measure that?

• Specifically, what changes do you know about to change philosophy, tactics, training and recruitment to change the culture of the department, and how do you measure success?

• What changes do you expect to make in the screening and hiring of a permanent replacement for Belk, and in the expectations for the person who fills the role?

Though Noel did not answer the questions posed to him through his spokesperson, Erland provided a long response to the queries from Knox News.

"Despite notions to the contrary, the KPD is making real strides to improve as an agency and diversify its ranks. The departmentwide rollout of the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) training is well underway. We remain the only agency in Tennessee to join the ABLE Project. Additionally, we are preparing to start one of the most diverse recruit classes in recent history in September.

"The Chief and our department are grateful to Brooklyn for all of her contributions during her tenure as the first-ever Deputy Chief of Professional Standards. The Chief is also grateful to retired Federal Judge Bruce Guyton for stepping into that role in an interim capacity.

"The Chief remains entirely committed to the Professional Standards model and is working hard to identify the best person to take on the job full-time."

Chicoya Smith Gallman, president of the Tennessee Alliance of Black Lawyers, a statewide group based in Nashville, told Knox News the group learned about the threatening email and the response to it in June.

"The Tennessee Alliance of Black Lawyers, as a statewide organization that supports the advancement of Black attorneys, stands in solidarity with Chief Belk. Chief Belk has supported all efforts of (the Tennessee Alliance of Black Lawyers) for a very long time. The email she received was especially heinous and we were concerned for her safety."

“I read the email in its entirety and it is alarming and threatening to any unarmed Black professional in receipt of that email. I don’t know of any Black woman nor a man that would stick around and continue to experience racism and sexism in such an unsafe work environment.”

Contentious debate: Are racist emails a crime or simply freedom of speech?

"To say this didn't meet the threshold for a crime so we're just gonna leave it alone, well, that's costly. At the end of the day she left there still fearing for her safety and for her family,” Allen, the former KPD chief deputy, told Knox News.

Legal experts say that there’s a thin line between what constitutes a crime when it comes to racist emails and what is considered free speech under the U.S. Constitution. Striking a balance between protecting individual liberties and combating hate speech requires thoughtful consideration of legal frameworks, societal attitudes and cultural contexts.

The delicate balance between protecting freedom of expression and addressing the harmful effects of hate speech continues to challenge society and is especially controversial depending on who is on the receiving end of it.

Pearson, who also serves as the center's policy director at FIU, has worked on criminal justice reform legislation and policing in Florida during her career. She told Knox News she thinks any approach taken in situations such as Belk’s should prioritize fostering a society where open dialogue and the exchange of ideas can coexist with efforts to eliminate discrimination and promote inclusivity. She believes that Belk’s case was a missed opportunity for the police department and local leaders.

Pearson, who has a wealth of experience in diversity, equity and inclusion work, said outcomes often are differentiated depending on who's watching, who is handling the matter, and who is on the receiving end. A Black or white lens on a racist email can make or break how things play out.

“First of all my heart just breaks for her (Belk), because that is a traumatic email for any African American to receive," Pearson said. "It is easy for some to look at it as just some crank email message or the rants of an unhinged person, and overlook the seriousness of it. But you have to take every step necessary to make sure that the person isn’t going to take additional steps beyond it. And your Black deputy chief has to know and feel that every step has been taken."

Black or white lens? A history of racial violence against African Americans means more than a nuisance email

The historic trauma embedded in the existence of Black Americans transcends generations through slavery to Jim Crow to deep-seated discrimination that grips society today.

This frequently underscores the contrast in perspective between how Black and white people perceive incidents like the threatening email sent to Belk. When Black individuals encounter racist messages, the embedded trauma and historical context amplify the sense of threat.

Pearson said historic experience alone adds to the fear and intimidation that Black people feel when they are on the receiving end of what some might see as just a nuisance email.

“It is common for others to see why someone would be upset by this email, but we have to think more deeply about it,” Pearson said.

While many may understand the emotional reaction to the email, deeper reflection is essential. Rather than seeing it in isolation, historical awareness must be considered, whether it’s personal or derived from collective U.S. history and the common progression from such threats to concrete actions.

“When we think about Emmett Till’s story, or Dr. King, and Malcolm X, and so many different people in history that ended up speaking out, being the first and then meeting an untimely death, it's not something that's abstract, it's not a theory," Pearson told Knox News. "It's actual history that people have witnessed repeatedly, time and time again."

Consequently, it's this same historical backdrop that significantly influences how Black people perceive and swiftly respond to threats, driven by a pervasive fear rooted in reality.

Retired Police Captain Dan Willis, who served for 30 years in the La Mesa Police Department near San Diego, is a national expert in trauma recovery, resilience and wellness for officer safety

His book "Bulletproof Spirit" provides tools to strengthen resilience and enhance personal and organizational wellness within police departments.

Willis told Knox News that the Knoxville Police Department and local leaders needed to exert every effort possible in handling the situation, including putting manpower and money behind it, even if it meant coming up short.

“This is a terrible situation, for anyone to send an email to either intimidate or imply that someone shouldn’t be in their position because they are Black," Willis said. "I’m not in the South, and so it seems so over the top that I can't even believe anyone is still sending these kinds of messages. So I believe that this is when the leader needs to be the leader and to stand up and call it out. You need to even send a loud message that this may not have come from the inside, but we're investigating it as if it did. And we will find out who you are, you're going to be terminated and that is a clear message that needs to continuously be given. When you don’t, it lets everyone know it's kind of OK to do that.”

Willis told Knox News that there has to be a consistent message from the chief all the way down the chain of command of what is tolerated and what isn't or the agency's capacity to achieve its mission will be impaired, leading to erosion of trust within the community.

This, in turn, will hinder the department's ability to foster community engagement and establish collaborative relationships, he said. To prevent such outcomes, a robust system is essential, one where transparency and fairness are evident, ensuring an unbiased fact-finding process aimed at uncovering the truth, regardless of the circumstances. This approach is vital to safeguarding individuals' rights, including those of officers, he said.

When issues of racism and sexism are embedded within a department for years, you have to take even more steps and action when officers are subjected to racism.

“Let’s say you spend two months investigating something. You don't know how it's going to turn out until you look into it," Willis said. "And maybe they spent six months and they spend, you know $20,000 in manpower trying to figure out who did this and you can't figure it out.

"OK, who cares? You did everything you could to back her up to tell the department that this is unacceptable. You tried to get to the bottom of it."

What lies ahead

Where does the Knoxville Police Department go from here?

When Noel assumed his post in June 2022, he came straight from a top leadership position in the New Orleans Police Department to take over from Chief Eve Thomas, who resigned from her post after growing dissatisfaction with her leadership from within and outside the department.

A series of investigative pieces by Knox News reporter Tyler Whetstone beginning in July 2019 revealed a culture of disrespect of women and Black people that had been always been tolerated. Those guilty of wrongdoing were abetted by those all the way up the chain of command.

One year after Noel’s hire, a problem still exists. But is it fair to put the solution on the chief alone? Is it only up to him?

Noel, who is white, is no stranger to working and living in a diverse community. He grew up in culturally rich New Orleans, and came up in policing in the city's Black-majority police department. One of his first steps in Knoxville was to commission a top-to-bottom survey by an outside firm of the department's employees, and he released the findings to the public. The survey revealed what many already knew, especially Black people: Black officers felt discriminated against.

“Mrs. Belk was hired to fill a role to uphold the agency's culture and make sure members adhere to its values to nearly universal acclaim. If a former prosecutor of Mrs. Belk's caliber and experience can’t last four months, what hope do they have?" asked Chris Irwin, a Knoxville attorney and former Knox County public defender who worked with Belk over the years.

Irwin said that Belk's resignation can make it even more difficult for the department to recruit people of color, especially another Black deputy chief.

For people like Frank Shanklin, who has lived in the community for decades, it’s a loss for the Black community. It’s the erasure of a Black face in a position of power that the community needs.

Shanklin, a longtime business owner, reflected on the time he met with Belk on the East side after a murder took place during her brief tenure as deputy chief. He told Knox News she visited the family that had lost their son to gun violence.

“We aren't used to seeing our officials do much of that. And we needed one that was one of us," Shanklin said. "That night I made that call, she came out and showed her face and I know that meant a lot to this family, it goes a long way."

For Pearson, it’s all about preparedness. How are organizations in a position to make big hires like Belk in the first place? And how will they set them up with the support to be successful?

“It’s always important when it's a first. And when that first is a person of color, diversity and inclusion efforts must stretch beyond words,” she said.

A seat at the table is only as good as how much support an employer is willing to give and how Black voices will be used in processes and decision-making. And when there is only one person from within a group, it's even more challenging.

“Maybe inwardly they are thinking I support her, that's why I brought her in. Of course, I know she is well qualified," Willis said. "But if your actions don't reaffirm that in a way she feels it, then you might as well be telling her she is just a token figure and that whenever you want to leave you are free to go. That is the message it sends."

Belk was not just the first in the newly created role of deputy of professional standards; she also was the first Black woman to hold a deputy chief position in the Knoxville Police Department. She needed support that looked and felt authentic.

Experts like Pearson say a failure to understand the experiences of Black employees, especially trailblazers, leads to the decimation of diversity across professional sectors, and undoubtedly within the institution of policing.

“It's uncharted territory and there's always going to be different forces that are opposed to being in that seat of power, whether it be driven by racism, whether it be driven by cronyism or economic factors because there's corruption and people have benefited from certain lack of policies in the past and they fear that you as an outsider are going to come in and interrupt business as usual,” Pearson said.

The lack of diversity within KPD has always existed. As of August, only 15 of 345 sworn officers are Black, according to the Knoxville Police Advisory and Review Committee. That number is down from just two years ago. The city’s Black population is 17%, according to the latest U.S. Census data.

Noel has been direct about the lack of diversity, and is actively recruiting Black officers. He's changed recruiting strategies to identify more Black candidates, and has increased the number of Black candidates in the training academy. He's also been clear it will take time to diversify the force.

Others say Belk’s resignation and the circumstances surrounding it confirm the reality of racism and send a harrowing message that it is a citywide problem, deeply ingrained.

Gallman, a former Knoxville resident, said the problem is evidenced by the revolving door of Black lawyers and Black professionals in the city of Knoxville.

“Chief Belk has done work across the city of Knoxville for years and has been more than just the face of diversity. The result of this is more far-reaching than just losing your first woman Black deputy chief," Gallman said.

"One of the issues with the lack of diversity in Knoxville is that when you have none, or a few, or one, or the first, the result is exclusion, not inclusion. Because Knoxville has never done what is necessary to sustain diversity at any level, these issues continue to arise and fester and the ending effect is the silence of Black people.”

Angela Dennis is the Knox News race, justice and equity reporter. Email angela.dennis@knoxnews.com. Twitter @AngeladWrites. Instagram @angeladenniswrites. Facebook at Angela Dennis.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: A racist email is key to the mystery of Brooklyn Belk's KPD departure