When Mark Wahlberg was a teenager, it was known that the Hollywood actor participated in several racially motivated attacks. Back then Wahlberg was something of a delinquent causing trouble throughout the streets of a segregated Boston, and one of his victims does not believe that the actor should be pardoned based on his actions.
Kristyn Atwood was just in fourth grade when Wahlberg and his white friends decided to throw rocks at her and her friends while they were on a field trip to the beach. While throwing the rocks, Wahlberg and his friends were yelling racial epithets as Atwood and her friends were chased down the street.
Today Atwood states to AP, “I do not think he should get a pardon. I don’t really care who he is. It doesn’t make him any exception. If you’re a racist, you’re always going to be a racist. And for him to want to erase it I just think it’s wrong.”
Mary Belmonte, the teacher of the children who brought them to the beach in 1986, believes in forgiveness and that, “He was just a young kid — a punk — in the mean streets of Boston. He didn’t do it specifically because he was a bad kid. He was just a follower doing what the other kids were doing.”
Wahlberg has filed for an official pardon application, and stated that he was messed up with drugs, alcohol and the wrong crowd during the time of his delinquency.
While he is concerned about the situation with Atwood, he is more worried about a more sever case which happened in 1988, where he attacked two Vietnamese men while he was trying to steal beer. The altercation resulted in one of the men gong to the hospital, and put Wahlberg in jail.
Wahlberg understands the severity of his crimes when he was younger, he is now older and blessed with fame and riches, but he still wishes to be forgiven for actions and crimes that he committed when he was just a teenager, a very respectful notion.
Photos: AURA CAVANAUGH/FILMMAGIC
