“Lochte’s story shows one good reason why we should not uncritically believe people who claim to be crime survivors.” [Andrew Fleishman, Fault Lines]
“Lochte’s story shows one good reason why we should not uncritically believe people who claim to be crime survivors.” [Andrew Fleishman, Fault Lines]
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On the other hand, we shouldn’t uncritically believe the police, either. As USA Today has discovered, many elements of the “official” narrative put out by the Brazilian government don’t make sense or were just false.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/21/investigation-ryan-lochte-rio-olympics-authorities/89082232/
Lochte embellished his story, true. But he was fundamentally correct. Security guards flashed a badge at him, pointed a gun at him and extorted money from he and his friends for damaging an advertisement.
To top it all off, Brazilian government officials detained the other swimmers, confiscated their passports and extorted $11,000 from one of them – for what? Not for vandalism, as he has never been charged with that – but for embarrassing authorities.
Don’t get me wrong – Lochte was an idiot for dramatically embellishing the story (though in truth maybe he was so drunk that he remembered it that way), but if that’s a crime in Brazil, it shouldn’t be. I have yet to see a credible source that he actually made a false report to the police – as far as I can tell, he made a false report to his mother and then to the media.
A good friend of mine was a police officer, until his ex-wife accused him of threatening her with his weapon. It didn’t matter that he was testifying in court at the time she said that he did it. Just the accusation was enough for him to lose his job. Even though she filed a false police report, nobody wants to hold her accountable because of the possible political backlash.
Every story has three sides: his, hers,and the truth. In Lochte’s case, his, theirs, and the truth.