If Gabby Douglas made a false report to the police, as Ryan Lochte did, the response would have been very different

As a former police detective, I’ve dealt with many false crime reports, both admitted by the so-called victim and established by me as the investigator. So when I heard about the American swimmer Ryan Lochte making up a false robbery by gunpoint at a gas station in Rio during the Olympics, I didn’t take any notice. He’d been given the benefit of doubt.

That was until I heard about the treatment of his fellow countrywoman, gymnast Gabby Douglas. She has been vilified for not putting her hand to her heart during the US national anthem.

Compassion poured out for the Lochte, despite his false crime report. For Douglas, it was nothing but vitriol on social media. The 20 year-old gymnast is one of three in the sports history to win three gold medals, yet she was criticised as being ‘unpatriotic’. One act was a minor breach of etiquette, the other was an act of dishonesty, yet the reactions have been grossly asymmetrical. Why is this? Both are brilliant athletes, but one is a white man and the other is a black woman.

Ask yourself this, if the roles were reversed with both incidents, would the treatment have been the same? Imagine a black woman falsely accusing a man of a crime, or a man of colour being accused of lying to the police? The truth is how we look at Lochte and Douglas is different for many of us; it’s racialised.

As a black person, the one thing I have learnt during my lifetime is that whenever we as people of colour step out of line, rock the boat or do not conform, it is because we are somehow disloyal or unpatriotic to our country.

I fought Britain’s biggest police force in the courts because of its systematic racism, and continue to speak out. Many have questioned how I could have the audacity to do such a thing. It was disloyal and unpatriotic for wanting the police to change for the better, to treat all its citizens fairly and with respect they have the right to under the law.

The inequality expressed in our treatment towards black and white people is entrenched. There are different standards. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission released a report on the UK’s 'deep-rooted' race problems, which was nothing new for minorities or indeed poorer white.

The stories of Lochte and Douglas will pass, but for her, the hate, racism and misogyny she has endured will stay. It’s not something you just forget after the dust has settled.