Almost Instant Karma: Deputy Mike Fort Goes Adrift

[XLFD]

Deputy survives being stranded in snowdrift for 7 hours screamed the headline in the Facebook link to a story which didn't give much more than what the title said, leaving a teaser urging the reader to pick up a copy of the newspaper to find out who the deputy was and who the rescuer was, and a picture of a frozen ham package. 

I have to admit that at first glance of the headline, I was thinking that the most likely candidate for being the 'victim' in this story was someone fairly inexperienced and was sincerely hoping it was Deputy Mike Fort having a taste of karma for his unexplainably bad actions at a traffic stop involving Trooper Sammy Seymour and his sister, whom he not only physically assaulted, but also unlawfully imprisoned before formally arresting her for banging on his windows to be let out (read all about it here). 

Not content with telling the in-car audio system how he unlawfully seized and arrested her, he also hoped sincerely that the Spectrum Health Care medical professional whom he administered some obvious medical injuries to  had like her job, and said so twice before parading her through that very hospital as if she was somehow in the wrong for resisting an unlawful arrest.

So even though the link would not tell me who the deputy was or most other details I waited patiently, and was pleasantly surprised.  Deputy Mike Fort was your stranded deputy who waited seven hours and it could be argued that he wasn't very smart during the 2015 Valentine's Day blizzard.  But make up your own mind from how it's presented in the COLDNews.  Following a map of the general area where most of the action happened in the middle:

The good news is that Deputy Mike Fort hurt little more than his ego and pride this day, and nobody else got in any trouble who tried to rescue him in this seven hour odyssey.  One can hope that during the course of this personal ordeal that he went over what else he has done recently, and considered whether the job is right for him.  One could think that maybe God or some other force of justice in the universe foisted this humiliating experience on him as some kind of retribution or as a potential learning experience.  Will he perhaps look at it as some sort of instant karma that happened exactly four weeks after he severely messed up and perhaps ruined someone's life?

Just from hearing what I did on the in-car audio on the morning of January 17, when he engaged in a host of  unprofessional acts and words, I doubt whether he has the moral character to make those assessments.  He'll just forever be one of those goats dressed in brown whom us county taxpayers have to divert all our resources to protect him from his own actions.

[Willy]

From what is described in the article and from looking at the photos it appears that the deputy's car is definitely on the road. Those posts sticking out of the ground are "barriers" to keep cars off the grass area of the park and to protect persons using the park and to prevent cars from careening into the lake. Between his car and the barriers is an area where cars can park while using the parkland. The car is nowhere near the bayou boat launch because the bayou is nowhere near this park. Hamlin lake is about 25 ft from the right front head light of his vehicle. That's where he must have stepped of the seawall. He was darned lucky he was not seriously injured. If the deputy did not stay in the fort it was because he was sent out on a call. If anyone has ever hit a high drift in the road you know it can stop a vehicle and cause it to spin out and you don't have to be going fast for this to happen. The only poor judgement he used was to not carry the proper equipment and clothing.

[XLFD]

That's one swell piece of writing, Aquaman, that left me tired and breathless, though I think it was from the long paragraph that just kept going.  Without being redundant, I agree.  I also want to thank Willy and Angie for their nice comments regarding all emergency workers who are faithful to their jobs, and for reminding me of why I was troubled by the final official narrative of this situation, which I don't think relies entirely on the truth in its telling, at least at its origin. 

Blizzard situations with whiteout conditions are not much unlike fires if you think about it.  Visibility is nil, it's hard to breath, easy to get disoriented, the environment is harsh, etc.  Police have to adapt themselves into a firefighter's mentality and training, and that's hard for someone with little experience to hope for. 

It may also be hard for police leadership to recognize that, hence dispatching wet-behind-the-ears Fort in the situation and allowing him to wave off his brother deputy when he was threatening to be consumed by white fire should not have been allowed.  In the fire service, you go into the fire prepared, and you go in with a buddy.  When the buddy goes down, you need to be sure he gets out of the fire.  Deputy Balowski, under Fort's fool insistence or not, should have stayed until the issue at hand was mitigated. 

As it were, still using the analogy, Balowski left Fort in a burning building as he got out.  A fire chief seeing Balowski come out alone would realize that there is no longer a simple search operation involved, it has become a more serious rescue mission, where his firefighting resources elsewhere will have to be diverted to seek and rescue their missing man at their own great peril, a man who has a radio but can obviously not convey exactly where he is at. 

It should be obvious that on this day, the near seven hours that Fort was out of commission and being sought by multiple agencies using multiple equipment, that valuable emergency resources were drained away from where they were more sorely needed, and sorely endangered themselves, when it could have been obviated by clear thinking and a firefighter ethic.

[AQUAMAN]

In all truth, I have a lot more respect and admiration for firefighters, ambulance drivers, nurses and doctors, and most combat soldiers in the field. At least they don't have a political agenda in their actions, and also their statements to the press. I wonder where Fort came from, originally? Is he from a state that never had snow? Either way, he was out of his league, and his superiors used poor judgments too. At the very least, I would have thought Fort would have backup in the way of another deputy with him, either in the car, or on an atv/snowmobile. The fact that Cole was elected because Fiers didn't keep up with Sheriff Dept. vehicle maintenance, is reason to ask him now, are his winter vehicles, snowmobiles/atv's at the ready and operable? Or did he forget? OR, is he going to say there's no funds for it, with a $3 Million/yr. budget to use. (I don't make separate paragraphs on posts due to the fact that if I try, the spacing gets changed from the original text somehow, and looks grammatically wrong anyhow). Be calm, read slowly, and patiently await the resultant thinking is what I say, lol.

[XLFD]

I can tell you from experience that there is no worse feeling for a firefighter than doing something rash, foolish, or against training that make their actions part of the problem rather than the solution.  At the Seymour traffic stop, I saw no such self-awareness from Fort after his actions, just an unfunny Barney Fife-ness when he explained what happened to his victim and then his fellow deputy at the hospital.

I would hope that the radio traffic I FOIAed from 911 would have had him being dispatched to that specific area, because I don't see why any cars would have been out there in that nasty weather on that day.  We can also see whether he, his partner, and his road commanders actually followed protocols, with the idea to prevent such boneheaded activity to replay in the future.  Someone at MCSO needs at least to buy a personal GPS for Deputy Mikey in the future.

[Willy]

Good points X. I'm sure tho that neither dispatch or Fort realized how serious the conditions were and they will undoubtedly cover these types of situations a little differently in the future.

[Angie]

You all make good points that I didn't think about.   :)

[XLFD]

Here's what I got back from Mason Oceana Dispatch concerning last weekend's deputy stranding.  I asked for the radio footage one hour prior to and after Deputy Fort got stuck.  Mr. Ray Hasil sent me both a time-stamped and a regular .mp3 file starting with the dispatched event and for the hour after Deputy Fort (19 on the tape) is stuck.  It is transferred here to a youtube so that you can hear it without a media player.

Some things you may notice.  The original call was for a red SUV down by where Lakeshore 'Y's just north of Wisconsin, shortly thereafter a different described vehicle is stuck further north.  Deputy Balowski (10 on the tape) is the only one responding that they will take the call, 19 (Fort) never informs dispatch he is going to the area, but he does tell dispatch about bad conditions on Hamlin Lake and is on the radio with 10 when he gets stuck. 

Balowski (10) shortly asks whether he will need a push or something, gets waved off by 19 who is expecting a tow that never comes.  Balowski then proceeds further down the road to check on other motorists, about an hour after Fort is stuck, he's basically waiting on a tow that doesn't come. 

In retrospect, I think that Balowski should have stayed to around to assist Fort, but any discussion of that exchange between them did not cross the radio.  I do think it was not a great idea to head down that section of Lakeshore by either party.

[Willy]

Thanks for posting that sound track X. Celeste, What your saying is that if you get stranded in a blizzard you do not want any rescue attempt made for you, correct? They had every business to go out there and check to see if the stranded people needed help. That's  part of their job. What's scary is your criticism of officers who made an effort to aid people who may have been in serious trouble.

[AQUAMAN]

The ONLY person I see so far that should have praise on them is Liz Reimink. It would be like giving a Medal of Honor to a combat soldier that was thinking about saving his platoon, maybe even slightly tried, but survived and failed in the attempt. All Fort did is follow superior's orders, and blindly went and got himself in harms way instead. As for the actual stranded citizens, I'd put more faith in Liz to save them after this episode. Fort also had a lot of other options he chose to ignore, and just sat there like a Dufus imho. And no willy, he was definitely off the regular road as again seen in the picture. It's hard to imagine anyone giving Fort any real credit for this. He again, obviously panicked in a critical situation, which is nowhere near what I expect in a LE officers' actions.

[XLFD]

Like the night of the Septrion stop, Deputy Fort was just doing his job, but using poor judgment in doing so. 

Liz Reimink should definitely be commended when all the other rugged men with various assortments of toys failed, this meek woman with simple means used intelligence and wisdom to save Deputy Fort from the elements.  It's those kinds of tools of law enforcement that need to be used more often.  And she wasn't even on duty.

[Willy]

If Fort's car was on the other side of the posts, he would have been in the park. If he were next to the post,  he would have been on the shoulder of Lakeshore Dr. The fact that he was maybe 15ft or so from the post puts him squarely on the road. As I said before, he did not have the proper equipment to face a blizzard and that is something that the Sheriff must remedy. All police vehicles should carry survival equipment not only for officers but for anyone they may have to rescue. I give credit to Liz because she used common sense and had the proper gear to endure that kind of weather. This is a learning lesson for the Sheriff Dept. and they should act accordingly. Just because Fort acted like a jerk to Seymour's sister doesn't make everything he does wrong. He didn't panic. Someone who panics would have wandered away from the vehicle which would really have caused a serious problem.

[XLFD]

Perhaps this view of Fort's stranded car gives a better vantage point of whether it was on or off the road.  It does look on the road to me, from what I know of that area.  The original report from the COLDNews said an attempt from the south to get through failed and so they headed to Duneview to come down from the north.  While I think that scenario is contradicted by the radio traffic, the idea of going to the north when the south was impassable was not a good idea.  The fact that Balowski somehow made it through the same road Fort did notwithstanding. 

These guys would have been wise to be following a plow if they planned to do something heroic that day, as it was they did something zeroic and allowed the EMD to play the heroine.