Habooji
Starting to get sick of all the Lochte bashing I'm seeing. Before you make your mind up on Ryan, I want you to think about a few things.
Who are the real liars?
The swimmer's themselves are being branded as liars by every media outlet on the planet it seems, but are they? Lochte provided an exaggeration of events that happened, but all in all the important facts are: he and his team mates were told to get out of their cab, guns were pointed at them, they were made to get on the ground and weren't allowed to leave until the "security guards" were given money. I'm sorry, but in Australia where I live, that's robbery. In the united states, that too is robbery. Apparently it's not in Rio though because I haven't seen or heard about anyone going after the assailants.
The video footage released shows that the swimmers were escorted out of the cab into a different area, and were made to get on the ground in front of the two "security guards". Originally the police chief told us that no guns were drawn. Pretty soon after that he informed us that 1 gun was drawn, but now he's telling us both guards drew their guns but did not menacingly point them at the swimmers. Today I just saw an article about how an eye witness said "no guns were drawn". Apparently the police force didn't contact him to tell him that their story had changed.
The video footage that has been released to the public is also edited. You can see the jump in time as parts of the video are skipped. You don't see Ryan vandalising the inside of a toilet as claimed by the Brazilians, all you see is what I mentioned in the last paragraph.
As for the "fellow swimmers admitting they lied". The only person who told us this is the Rio police chief, who as I've outlined has a habit of reporting false information to the media. Upon arriving back in the US, Bentz told media that he did not lie about the robbery and provided his version of events, which directly goes against what the police chief has stated about Bentz's supposed "confession". He also believes critical scenes and angles from the footage have been intentionally left out because it would hurt the case against the Americans.
So first the police chief lied about the weapons being used, and the number of weapons multiple times. Then he lied about the Americans damaging a restroom. Finally he said the crime reported didn't occur, even though they have video footage of two security guards forcing them to get on the ground and not letting them leave until they had been paid.
Jimmy Fegan was indicted on this "evidence" and wasn't allowed to leave the country unless he paid a $10,800US "donation". Jack Conger and Bentz were pulled off a plane as they were going home and had their passports revoked and were told they weren't going anywhere unless they talked to the police, even though they weren't under arrest.
I for one, am not buying it. This is what happens when the country who's PR is on the line and is already having a negative shadow cast on them for the safety of athletes and the duty of care provided is allowed to investigate a crime that threatens to worsen all the things I just mentioned.
There's a lot more to this story than what's being reported and provided by the Rio police department. Perhaps if instead of writing opinion pieces and biased articles, if these reporters had put the same amount of time and effort into reporting the FACTS then we might actually know what happened. At the very least, shouldn't they be held accountable for the lies they've already told? We certainly seem to be trying to hold Ryan accountable...
Who are the real liars?
The swimmer's themselves are being branded as liars by every media outlet on the planet it seems, but are they? Lochte provided an exaggeration of events that happened, but all in all the important facts are: he and his team mates were told to get out of their cab, guns were pointed at them, they were made to get on the ground and weren't allowed to leave until the "security guards" were given money. I'm sorry, but in Australia where I live, that's robbery. In the united states, that too is robbery. Apparently it's not in Rio though because I haven't seen or heard about anyone going after the assailants.
The video footage released shows that the swimmers were escorted out of the cab into a different area, and were made to get on the ground in front of the two "security guards". Originally the police chief told us that no guns were drawn. Pretty soon after that he informed us that 1 gun was drawn, but now he's telling us both guards drew their guns but did not menacingly point them at the swimmers. Today I just saw an article about how an eye witness said "no guns were drawn". Apparently the police force didn't contact him to tell him that their story had changed.
The video footage that has been released to the public is also edited. You can see the jump in time as parts of the video are skipped. You don't see Ryan vandalising the inside of a toilet as claimed by the Brazilians, all you see is what I mentioned in the last paragraph.
As for the "fellow swimmers admitting they lied". The only person who told us this is the Rio police chief, who as I've outlined has a habit of reporting false information to the media. Upon arriving back in the US, Bentz told media that he did not lie about the robbery and provided his version of events, which directly goes against what the police chief has stated about Bentz's supposed "confession". He also believes critical scenes and angles from the footage have been intentionally left out because it would hurt the case against the Americans.
So first the police chief lied about the weapons being used, and the number of weapons multiple times. Then he lied about the Americans damaging a restroom. Finally he said the crime reported didn't occur, even though they have video footage of two security guards forcing them to get on the ground and not letting them leave until they had been paid.
Jimmy Fegan was indicted on this "evidence" and wasn't allowed to leave the country unless he paid a $10,800US "donation". Jack Conger and Bentz were pulled off a plane as they were going home and had their passports revoked and were told they weren't going anywhere unless they talked to the police, even though they weren't under arrest.
I for one, am not buying it. This is what happens when the country who's PR is on the line and is already having a negative shadow cast on them for the safety of athletes and the duty of care provided is allowed to investigate a crime that threatens to worsen all the things I just mentioned.
There's a lot more to this story than what's being reported and provided by the Rio police department. Perhaps if instead of writing opinion pieces and biased articles, if these reporters had put the same amount of time and effort into reporting the FACTS then we might actually know what happened. At the very least, shouldn't they be held accountable for the lies they've already told? We certainly seem to be trying to hold Ryan accountable...
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