This is not a challenge to the OP. I’m just going to leave this here because I’ll be damned if I’m going to register to take part in this site other than to say this, and then I’m out:
First off, I can’t stand cheats of any kind, especially those who flaunt their bogus accomplishments and become mentors to kids. I can’t stand cheats who reap the rewards of said bogus accomplishments at the expense of those who played by the rules and posted legitimate times. I can’t — and won’t — defend Frank Meza. He gets no sympathy from me. None whatsoever.
That said, it was conclusively proven both here and on MI that Meza cheated at LA, and suspicions were adequately backed up by his performances in a few other races. The evidence was submitted to the LA RDs and justice was served. It may have taken longer than it should have, but in the end you all got what you wanted. That’s where ALL of this should have ended. Threads should have been locked or deleted after the DQ news broke, and Murphy should have stamped “paid in full” on this one and moved on.
More than a thousand (I lost count) stalkerish, obsessive, and unmoderated pile-ons served no purpose in probing — and ultimately proving — Meza’s culpability. MI’s efforts to go back to 2014 (thanks in part to LRC) to once again confirm an established fact also served no purpose. MI published the DQ story on 7/1, followed by the “Meza on a Bike” update on 7/4. Why? You did not need to keep going out of your way to find other instances of cheating once he was caught, whether he admitted to it or not. You did not need to speculate about his ethics outside of running, his life outside of running, or mock him.
Many of Murphy’s subjects vehemently deny the evidence or go to radio silence when confronted, and the matter goes into a holding pattern. Not this time, for some reason. To repeat: Meza got DQ’d from LA, a story that went national — a stain that most likely would have finished his running career had he not gone in the river. It makes no difference what happened in 2014, 2013, 1973, or however far back you were willing to go. One instance of confirmed cheating is enough.
Isn’t it obvious by now? Once a cheat, most likely always a cheat. Search-and-destroy missions are unnecessary — the hard-core cheats eventually do an excellent job of ruining their own reputations and maybe their lives all by themselves, although not often (I hope) in the manner of Meza.
To deny and defend this site’s and MI’s outright hounding of Meza is beyond the pale. While LRC and MI cannot be held directly responsible for Meza’s apparent suicide — we can never know the true motivation behind such an act — you both sure as hell didn’t help matters any, and on some level I hope you realize that. When I saw the story on my Google homepage this morning, my thoughts immediately turned to LRC and MI. Why was that? And to be honest, I’m not surprised at all by what’s happened.
Do the right thing now and finally lock — if not purge — the Meza thread, if you haven’t already. And, while I know this is an absolutely laughable request, please examine your own consciences and scruples in how you run this site going forward, as others have urged. I know if I had taken any part in this vigilantism, that’s what I’d be doing.
(Go ahead now and tell me to flake off, which I will — gladly. After years of lurking, I know how things work here.)