Are you sure that you didn’t want to call names? Why is the fine different for different people who commit the same crime? So that a famous American swimmer (although, tbh, I don’t know how famous he is) has to be $10,800 for the same crime as someone else may pay $10 for? Is there an upper and lower limit for fines…

How to get by as an unpaid intern? Have a trust fund with millions in it so you don’t need to get paid.

Lol. I don’t care what you believe. Turns out my degree does not depend upon your belief.

Never watched Law & Order. But I do have a law degree.

I think what I was confused about here was whether he filed a false report vs. lied to the police. My understanding is that he did not initiate any report, but when the cops questioned him, he lied to them.

Exactly. I have said that multiple times now. If you impose a $10,000 fine on everyone who lies to cops, then I will agree that it’s a fine.

You are exactly right about blacks in America. I agree 100% that if the rule of law was applied equally in America, there would be countless black lives saved and less blacks in prison and on death row. Again, I have never said that America is better in any way. It’s probably worse.

Perhaps if the rule of law was applied equally to everyone, it wouldn’t look like extortion.

Obviously this conversation is not productive at all. Yes, I agree that people who are suspected of a crime, if they have probable cause, can be detained. What I said was that I have never heard of someone losing their passport for the “crime” of lying to the cops. I doubt it has ever happened.

Got it. The articles I read did not specify the actual “crime”, and my understanding was that he had not reported it to the police (but only spoke to them when they requested an interview). Another posted said that he and Lochte did originally report it. So therein lied my confusion.

Oh for fuck sake, who said the US would do better? Just because there would be different remedies does not mean they would be better. I am simply pointing out that requiring someone to pay $10,000 so they can go home sounds a hell of a lot like extortion. Particularly if you do not regularly hand out $10,000 fines for…

Oh, I was confused as to who gave the statements. I thought his attorney said he never reported it. No, I do not think that someone in the US would have their passport confiscated for lying to the cops. People lie to the cops every single day here. And I have yet to hear of one who had their passport confiscated.

Here’s where I have genuinely confused - he never reported the crime to the police, so he never gave a false statement. According to what I have read, they cannot charge him with a crime related to the property damage because the owner of the gas station did not want to press charges. So I am truly confused as to what…

Sometimes you have to take the small victories when you have a men’s swimming team full of fucktards.

Wait, apparently since the owner of the gas station refused to prosecute, they can’t be charged with that. I’m confused. I don’t even know what crime he paid the fine for. Regardless, he gets to leave Rio if he pays the money.

You’re the one who said the US would keep a passport of someone in the same situation. I was simply pointing out that they would not. The judge did not even say what “crime” he was paying the fine for. She just agreed that he could pay a fine and then leave the country. And, he did not lie to cops. He did not even…

Great. You’re a Brazilian attorney. Is this a normal fine for these crimes? Do people normally pay fines to charity in Brazil? Does Brazil regularly confiscate people’s passports for petty crimes until they pay a fine?

If you read my original post, there were all sorts of reasons that I said it was extortion. You chose to focus on one to make some sort of point. I have no problem with that. I also have no problem with them paying an actual fine. Which they, quite frankly, should pay. I just don’t believe that’s what this is. But, if…

So how does $10,000 in damages relate to lying to cops? And, no, I have never heard of the US keeping someone’s passport, or even confiscating it, until they paid a fine related to a petty crime.

It truly doesn’t matter because the biggest reason this is extortion is that they are keeping his passport until he pays it. That’s the definition of extortion.