2012 USOT Marathoner Ricky Flynn arrested for embezzlement

i'm not dinosaur and I don't defend embezzlement, but ok.

I still stand by my statement: you struggle with reading comprehension.

The owner of the running store is a good friend and great guy..I know this is killing him and cost him more than anyone will ever know…sad part I consider Ricky a friend too. this being said the ex cop in me makes me very pissed off..I have had this happen to me in my old store too…This does not look good for the suspect….the running shop owner is not a large corporation but a small business owner who gives a hell of lot to the running community in Lynchburg,Va.

This is a loss loss for everyone believe me..

thom suddeth wrote:

this being said the ex cop in me makes me very pissed off.

Yes, and cops are the most innocent citizens of all, right? Another perfect cop on an anonymous board. Ughhhhhhh!

And yet this is an online thread, where I could care less (and prefer not to care) about grammar; I have already written a thesis.Again...STOP DEFENDING HIM.

former lc wrote:

I still stand by my statement: you struggle with reading comprehension.

Yes I'm well aware of the serious nature of these charges. Sorry I'm not sorry for trying to offer some words of encouragement to a teammate and friend who appears to have lost his way and gone down the wrong path. What would you have him do? Pay his debt to society and then give up on life completely? Ricky, I will say it again-it might take a while and it will be a rough road to get there. Somewhere, somehow, sometime, someone WILL give you a second chance to walk down the right path in life. There is a good chance it might not be what you wanted it to be before all this happened. But if all these charges are true-pay your debt, do your time, come out of it on the other side as a new man.

-KP, aka Dinosaur

well it wasn't grammar it was reading comprehension, but alright. it's great that you've written a thesis, though.

anyway, I didn't defend ricky at all but just so your post has some relevance to the topic at hand i'll take a crack at it.

first, I wouldn't defend embezzlement. if guilty, he'll get whatever he deserves and he should, whether it' a long probation or a prison term. but I would say that he isn't quite the monster people like you are making him out to be. I can safely say that most people I knew on the team liked him and if they didn't they certainly didn't let it on. in fact, the only bad relationship he had was ironically with dinosaur, who posted earlier in this thread and isn't at all bitter towards him. one on one ricky is a pretty good guy and he really does get along well with the people he knows.

I don't know in what situation you met him, but if it was at a track meet you should know he is really a different person on race day. not to say he's mean, but he gets into "race mode" and generally doesn't talk as much. how is he after a race depends on how he does. point is, unless he did something really out of the ordinary, like called you a name and told you to get lost, then I wouldn't put much stock in how he is at track meets.

if you met him outside of a track meet then maybe he just doesn't like you. reading you posts I can judge that you are probably pretty annoying in person.

I hope your poor reading comprehension doesn't mean you'll take this as some kind of all out defense of ricky's actions. like a lot of people I think what someone does in the dark is far more telling than what they do in the light. that being said, ricky isn't a sociopath and he isn't irredeemable. he did something bad and he apparently did it for an extended period of time. now he is going to pay for it. will he change and come out a better person? i'd bet yes.

I respect your response but I do not respect him.

If you are able to call me "annoying" with a post on the internet because I disagree with a criminal, a guy that I have already believed prior to be full of himself because of his interactions with me, so be it. To be sure, I have never spoken against Flynn before this incident but now the flood gates are open.....

Helpful hint, attacking my "reading comprehension" is as useless as posting in this forum. That is all I have to say.

I have a few guesses as to who you are. It's a little late at the moment but I'll text you tomorrow.

But to re-enforce what you're trying to tell this guy-

None of us are defending Ricky's actions. If he did it he deserves whatever consequences the legal system deems appropriate. We stand behind Ricky as a person and believe that he can redeem himself after he pays his debt to society. If anyone possesses the personal qualities needed to pull themselves out of this and rise up again to be a productive member of society it's Ricky Flynn. You did a bad thing Ricky but you aren't a bad person. Stay strong through the rough part that is coming up, we believe in you.

thanks for the helpful hint. funny thing is this is the first time i've posted on this forum.

helpful hint for you: really, your reading comprehension is bad. it isn't useless to point it out because we can't have a conversation if you aren't going to respond to what i actually wrote. fortunately, it's usually something that's easy to fix. just read slower.

[quote]Torsion wrote:

And yet this is an online thread, where I could care less (and prefer not to care) about grammar; I have already written a thesis.

Again...STOP DEFENDING HIM.

[quote]

If you could care less, that means you still have room to care less.

(Just letting you know, because you apparently still had some room to care less about grammar.)

In the major scheme he just pilfered some gear over a long time and concocted a scheme going to profit himself.

When this happens at that level usually you just fire the guy. Small time, most wouldn't get the law involved.

No one is comparing him to a Bernie Madoff or someone robbing people for their wallets at gunpoint.

I am just disgusted at some of the comments that he was driven to steal because of lack of financial support to continue his marathon career.

That is his choice and many, many (even with college degrees) have lived in relative poverty (relative to this country) and didn't have to steal and embezzle to do it.

A ten dollar an hour job at even 30 hours a week today will support a 120 mile week runner and still pay 20 grand a year after taxes. If you are single and split bills with

room mates, that is what runners did back in the day before 120 dollar a month smart phone plans and 4 dollar a gallon gas.

And in my day in the 1980's every 2:13 American marathoner was getting all the gear they needed free from their sponsor. I know its no longer the case today.

Different today where the shoe companies put more money than ever to the top stars and those small contracts for lots of 2:13 or 28:30 10k runners are non-existent.

Yet Bill Rodgers was broke and unemployed when he made his breakthrough at 1975 World Cross and Boston Marathon American Record. If you have a roof over your head and the time to train a sort of reliable vehicle, and found a way to keep the lights on with a low paying job and eat cheap, someone like Ricky Flynn could run 2:09 just like Rodgers.

So I guess I do recognize its tougher for post-collegiate to keep going today at the developmental level. Back in the early 1980's shoe companies were signing any prospect, even if it as just some gear and a 3 to 5,000 dollar stipend and that didn't work out to their benefit so that's over.

Stealing is wrong and I hate thieves. People work hard to get ahead.

And only making 10 bucks an hour with an MBA working at a running store only means is that you are paid the appropriate rate relative to your value as an employee.

This is tragic, because $5000 is chicken feed compared to the price he will pay for the rest of his life. He didn't have to do that, but he will have to live with the consequences.

With an M.B.A. there are many small businesses that he could have worked for in one capacity or another, and having said that - with an M.B.A. he should have the tools to launch and profit from his own business somewhere down the line.

I think he should be forgivenm, on the proviso that he pays back his debts and repents. He crossed the line, but he is far from being a classic criminal. Very far. He is basically a good person who made some wrong choices.

In America, the way people perceive others who have crossed the line is in stark contrast to what Christianity calls for - that is to forgive and love everyone as your brother or son, if the person in question who committed wrong repents and recognizes the fault he did.

Ghost in Saudi,

www.kfupm.edu.sa

, apply today, great perks and tax free salary. Over 50s welcome.

I agree with your first paragraph, and nothing else.

America fawns over graduate degrees, but the truth is an MBA from a school without an established MBA program is hardly worth the paper it's printed on. Elite MBAs are not sought after because of what they learned in school, but because of who they met when they were there. You're paying for the network. The classes are a joke.

I am normally a believer in forgiveness and restitution, but at the same time, I don't think you deserve multiple chances. Someone said his records show that he was already convicted of larceny a few years ago. That was his chance. The punishment should escalate here, because he clearly didn't take enough away from that first encounter.

I'm not saying prison is the right call (harms his ability to perform restitution, and chances are he'll learn how to be an even better criminal on the inside), but he definitely needs more than a slap on the wrist for a second offense.

George Atlas wrote:

If you have a roof over your head and the time to train a sort of reliable vehicle, and found a way to keep the lights on with a low paying job and eat cheap, someone like Ricky Flynn could run 2:09 just like Rodgers.

Key word, "could", but not likely. Look at the Hanson guys. Except for Brian, how many of their 2:14 marathoners improved after years and years of being there and training with a better situation than Rodgers did?

None, not one. They are 2:14 marathoners and that's their topped out ability after 5-8 years of giving it a go. Nothing wrong with that, it's just a fact as their times prove my point.

Bottom line, you don't know what Rick would have done, but 2:09 is a stretch.

thom suddeth wrote:

The owner of the running store is a good friend and great guy..I know this is killing him and cost him more than anyone will ever know…sad part I consider Ricky a friend too. this being said the ex cop in me makes me very pissed off..I have had this happen to me in my old store too…This does not look good for the suspect….the running shop owner is not a large corporation but a small business owner who gives a hell of lot to the running community in Lynchburg,Va.

This is a loss loss for everyone believe me..

you still consider him a friend? and call him "the suspect"

a "loss loss for everyone" ??? I guess I do not really understand what you are saying, of course it is a loss for everyone. Crime has consequences. And should. If it was a large corporation that was the victim of the crime that would be okay?

why doesn't Ricky have a lawyer yet? if he got caught in 2009 why did he not learn a lesson?

Anyone notice one of Ricky's recent races called Jail Break?

http://www.gtc-elite.org/ricky-flynn.html

next up The Jericho MIle

Jail Break wrote:

Anyone notice one of Ricky's recent races called Jail Break?

http://www.gtc-elite.org/ricky-flynn.html

under the four pillars for the GTC Track Club they list:

Provide an environment in which training and competing can be the focus of those post-collegiate athletes (without the financial burden and necessity of working full time).

I constantly wonder why so many feel that the responsibility of providing for your self is considered so necessarily at odds with fulfillment of athletic potential. To each their own.

George Atlas wrote:

A ten dollar an hour job at even 30 hours a week today will support a 120 mile week runner and still pay 20 grand a year after taxes.

Well, math perhaps was not your strength. It would pay $15,600 BEFORE taxes, and obviously a fair bit less AFTER taxes.