You may recognize him as the lead actor in movies such as “The Perfect Storm,” “Planet of the Apes” and “The Departed,” and before that, the front man of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. But before Mark Wahlberg was Marky Mark, he was a juvenile delinquent with a penchant for terrorizing the streets of Dorchester.
On April 8, 1988, Wahlberg, then 16 years old, attempted to steal two cases of beer from Thanh Lam, the Vietnamese owner of a convenience store on Dorchester Avenue. Wahlberg hit Lam over the head with a wooden stick while calling him several racial slurs. Wahlberg was arrested, charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a controlled substance and served 45 days at the Deer Island House of Correction.
Now, Wahlberg is applying for an official pardon to legally erase his criminal past before Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick leaves office. Among his reasoning is the fact that his criminal record is a roadblock to expanding he and his brother’s restaurant franchise Wahlburgers, but also runs to a more personal motivation.
“Receiving a pardon would be a formal recognition that I am not the same person that I was on the night of April 8, 1988,” Wahlberg says in the application. “It would be formal recognition that someone like me can receive official public redemption if he devotes himself to personal improvement and a life of good works. My hope is that, if I receive a pardon, troubled youths will see this as an inspiration and motivation that they too can turn their lives around and be formally accepted back into society.”
Wahlberg also mentioned in his pardon request that he has used his fame as a platform for speaking out against juvenile crime and cited his extensive philanthropic work, which includes the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in Newton and several contributions to the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester. Furthermore, Wahlberg wrote, “I make it a point to attend church every day.”
Aside from Wahlberg, about 70 other people are applying for pardons in Massachusetts, including a former crack cocaine dealer and a man who was arrested for transporting marijuana to his school. The Boston Globe reported on Friday that pardon requests grew exponentially this year, as Patrick recently changed state guidelines to make it easier to apply for pardons and shortened prison sentences.
For former criminals who have turned their lives around, erasing the demerits on their criminal record is a great way to combat the disadvantages that record may have on job opportunities.
Despite having achieved a substantial level of fame, Wahlberg’s criminal record puts him in the same boat as all of the other former criminals applying for pardons. The only difference? Wahlberg’s fame makes it more likely that he’ll receive official forgiveness, while the several people who won’t receive pardons will not be able to go home to the same financial stability and privilege Wahlberg has achieved despite his criminal pockmarks.
Although Wahlberg’s assaults, which aside from the one that landed him in jail also include throwing rocks and more racial slurs at a group of black 9-year-old students on a field trip, were long ago, many of his victims have requested he issue a more sincere apology.
Wahlberg’s success at transforming from a street terror with a criminal rap sheet to a respected actor, restaurant-owner and philanthropist is no doubt admirable. Yet, no matter how different his life is, nothing can change the fact that he hurt a lot of people in his past, and his criminal record should remain as a reminder of his former wrongdoings.
True, Wahlberg was only 16 when he brutally attacked Lam. Obviously, people change significantly as they grow older, and some argue that due to brain development, people under the age of 23 are not as culpable for their crimes as those whose brains have fully developed. Yet this doesn’t change the fact that Wahlberg committed the assault in the first place.
Pardoning Wahlberg may erase the act from his criminal record, but it doesn’t erase the traumatic memories of the people he hurt. Wahlberg may have gone on to become a celebrity after being released from prison, but fame should not be a factor in erasing a criminal record.
