Captain Clarence Delk. Photo from Facebook
Josh Harrell, a Warren County resident and business owner, made a very crude comment about a Grundy County Sheriff’s Department Captain.
According to WRCB TV and confirmed by Sequatchie Valley Now, Harrell made a Facebook post about an interaction between one of his employees and Grundy County Captain Clarence Delk about traffic safety in Coffee County. In this post, Harrell asked if anyone knew Captain Delk and referred to him as a ‘boy.’ Another deputy who stopped was referred to as the “white boy.” An unnamed person responded by posting “He ain’t got no place in Grundy, if you know what I mean.” Harrell responded by stating, “Ropes are long and trees are short nowadays, I guess… Ain’t like it used to be.” Harrell says. He says he did not intend to target Captain Delk. Harrell says he made the post out of frustration. Harrell posted a picture of Delk in his original post.
In the original post, Harrell says, “Does any of my Grundy county friends know this boy and the white boy that rides with him? They come all the way to 127 side of Fred Lusk rd harassing 1 of my drivers that was loading corn in the edge of the field there. Keep in mind they were nearly 2 full miles inside Coffee County. They finally left when he threatened to call Coffee County Sheriff’s Department on them. Thanks for any help. Said he was a Capt with GCSD.”
One witness stated that he saw the truck in the roadway, which he found to be dangerous and almost called 911. The other deputy, Kevin Smith, who stopped, posted on WRCB’s Facebook page that the truck was in the roadway and stopped in the oncoming lane of traffic.
Cpt. Delk is the first Black ranking officer in the history of the agency, according to the sheriff’s office’s administrative assistant.
He stated the disrespect and incitement to violence “cannot go unnoted,” and that his comments should be considered hate speech.
Cpt. Delk also said it was troubling, considering the recent hanging death of a student in Mississippi, despite officials ruling it a suicide.
Harrell now says, “I just deeply regret the entire thing. He said he feels horrible.
