SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A mass email sent by a California environmental agency to announce a "safe space" discussion after Derek Chauvin's murder conviction sparked a reply-all marathon as employees voiced support for police, accused management of "caving to the mob" and asked to be removed from a "racially based" email list.
The "Reply-Allpocalypse" erupted after an employee at the State Water Resources Control Board messaged all 2,376 staff members at the agency and its nine regional water control boards with the subject line: "Employee Support Lunch Through Teams Friday 4/23/2021."
The email was sent without blind-copying the recipients, allowing anyone to reply to the entire group. Similar mistakes have caused chaos in offices, universities and government agencies across the country for years.
Written by someone with the board's recently formed Racial Equity Steering Committee and Working Group, the invitation called for a voluntary lunch meeting for anyone who wanted to discuss Chauvin's conviction for murdering George Floyd, as well as more recent deaths of Black Americans at the hands of the police.
"We first and foremost want to acknowledge how rough the last few weeks have been on everyone's mental health with the senseless killings that have taken place all over the country," the email begins. "Secondly, we would like to let you know that you are not alone.
"We would like to give you the opportunity to discuss some of these feelings," it continues. "This event is intended for employees who are feeling emotionally affected by the current events of the country; it is not a question and answer session."
The water board, in response to a Public Records Act request, supplied The Sacramento Bee with the emails in the thread but with employee names redacted.
About 2 1/2 hours after the original email, an engineering geologist at the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board, one of the nine agencies reporting to the state board, fired back the first reply-all. It contained several misspellings, including an email signature that misspells "river" as "rover."
"Killing occurs everyday in the United States and it is not all reported on," the geologist wrote. "If the eater (sic) board actually wanted to make a difference they would or would not do this for everyone. The fact the water boards is doing this now, is just a sign of caving into the mob. Rome also was a great nation once before it feel (sic) to the mob."
The geologist said that "intra racial killing of African Americans is much more higher and significant than white cops killing African Americans unnecessarily." The employee then asked to be removed from the "racially based" mailing list.
"I do not appreciate being forced to think of my fellow Americans as unable to solve their own problems and I detest the implication it means I have the power to change their lives."
A few minutes later someone replied back: "Where is the Colorado ROVER Basin?"
Another replied: "It's at the eater board."
"It must be in a magical place where racism doesn't exist," another employee said in response to their colleague's "ROVER Basin" jab.
Someone typed, "Those types of emails are not appropriate or professional for the workplace. They are offensive to anyone who is not a racist."
It's not clear whether that was a reply to the geologist or to the initial "safe space" meeting email.
"I refuse to apologize or be victimized for immutable characteristics over which I have no control," an employee with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board wrote.
"Shame on the waterboard steering committee for stoking the flames of division like this," another employee wrote. "How extremely inappropriate and unfortunate to distribute such egregious propaganda this way."
That employee listed off the names of some recent officers who died in the line of duty. The sender referenced Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer Shay Mikalonis who was shot and paralyzed "at a BLM protest," referring to Black Lives Matter. "These are real people who chose a life of service, willing to place themselves in harm's way daily in order to protect ALL who cannot protect themselves," the employee wrote.
"I am really shocked to see all the hate mails — you may have opened a can of worms," another employee emailed.
Several asked to be removed from the email list. Others offered advice on how to stop the replies or told their colleagues the emails were going to everyone. One employee wrote "Please STOP replying all."
All of which kept the reply-alls going.
'The replies that were sent expressed a range of views'
The term Reply Allpocalypse refers to an email storm when members of a large organization keep hitting "reply all" and sending emails to everyone on the chain. In 2016, Caltrans got caught in one such exchange after the department director announced the death of a colleague to all 16,000 employees.
When these occurrences happen, the replies keep rolling in until people stop contributing to the thread, or until someone with access to the email system shuts down the chain.
That's what eventually happened at the water board. "The information technology office disabled the thread to prevent further reply-all responses," water board spokeswoman Jackie Carpenter told The Bee in an email.
Carpenter said the board's executive director, Eileen Sobeck, had already planned to send a message on April 21 acknowledging the verdict in the Chauvin trial and "emphasizing the importance" of the agency's racial equity programs.
Instead, she had to address the heated thread as well. "Unfortunately, the message was sent in a manner that allowed the reply-all function to be used inappropriately by some," she wrote.
"The replies that were sent expressed a range of views, and some replies did not demonstrate the civility I expect in work-related discussions. However, this discourse highlighted the importance of continuing our conversations about racial equity — working to ensure that race is not a predictor of life outcomes in California — and how that work benefits us all."
An agency spokeswoman, Nefretiri Cooley, declined to say whether any employees on the email chain were disciplined.
In her email to the staff, Sobeck said she fully supported employees who used their personal time at the Friday lunch meeting "to offer their colleagues a caring place to share thoughts and feelings," and she wanted to acknowledge "that recent events may elicit strong emotions, feelings, or memories of traumatic events."
She urged employees to seek mental health and crisis resources if needed.
