Convicted Racist


n June 1986, a then-15-year-old Wahlberg and three friends chased after three black children while yelling "Kill the nigger, kill the nigger" and throwing rocks at them.[15] The next day, Wahlberg and the others followed a group of mostly black fourth graders (including one of the victims from the previous day) taking a field trip on a beach, yelled racial epithets, threw rocks at them, and "summoned other white males who joined" in the harassment.[15][16] In August 1986, civil action was filed against Wahlberg for violating the civil rights of his victims, and the case was settled the next month.[17][18][19]

Another racially-charged incident occurred in April 1988. The then 16-year old Wahlberg assaulted a middle-aged Vietnamese-American man on the street, calling him a "Vietnam fucking shit" and knocking him unconscious with a large wooden stick. Later the same day, Wahlberg attacked Johnny Trinh, another Vietnamese-American, punching him in the eye. When Wahlberg was arrested and returned to the scene of the first assault, he told police officers: "I'll tell you now that's the mother-fucker whose head I split open."[20] Later, Wahlberg would explain that he was on PCP at the time.[21] Investigators also noted that Wahlberg "made numerous unsolicited racial statements about 'gooks' and 'slant-eyed gooks'".[22][23] Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to felony assault, and was sentenced to two years in jail, but served only forty-five days of his sentence.[22][24] Wahlberg believed he had left the second victim permanently blind in one eye, though Trinh later stated that he had lost his eye in the Vietnam War, while serving in the South Vietnamese Army, who were fighting alongside American troops.[25][19][22][23]

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I seriously can't fathom how Hollywood continues to employ this racist trash....

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just kids being kids

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Always judge a person on how they are now, not their past. That's just common sense.

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It's arguable that he should have faced harsher penalties for his misdeeds when he was younger, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with punishing someone in hindsight for something that they did over 30 years ago, especially as these acts are public knowledge.

It's not the same as say a Nazi who initially got away with their crimes and then tried to lay low for several decades *before* they were finally revealed to be a war criminal.

I'm personally surprised that Wahlberg was given something of a pass during the 90s, for his disgusting behaviour, but I'm also not sure who benefits from punishing him *now* after several decades in which, it appears, he's behaved himself and hasn't said or done anything racist or violent (as far as we know). In fact, there's a danger that it might say to people "What's the point of reforming?" After all, isn't that usually why we punish people to begin with? To demonstrate that crime doesn't pay and that the best course for them is to change their ways?

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