One of my Facebook friends gave me permission to reproduce his post about Mark Wahlberg asking for a pardon from the Governor of Massachusetts. He agreed, but asked to remain anonymous.
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So apparently, Mark Wahlberg is asking for a pardon for his 1988 felony convictions in the state of Massachusetts. Now, as a HUGE Mark Wahlberg fan(boy), and as someone who looks up to him and admires him as an actor and a top-tier professional in a field I want to get into, as well as my being a deeply appreciative veteran for everything that Mr. Wahlberg has done for America’s vets, my initial reaction was, “Sure, why not pardon him? Yeah, he did some awful, violent, racist shit back in 1988 as a teenager, but the man served his time and has genuinely turned his life around since then and become an exemplary model citizen.”
I’ve actually made multiple Facebook posts gushing over this guy, despite my philosophical disagreement with him over gun rights and the 2nd Amendment. He and Brad Pitt are the two guys that I absolutely look up to most in Hollywood. It’s fair to say I want to be like them.
THEN, I actually bothered to look into the situation and his reasons for wanting a pardon…
When Marky-Mark was fifteen, he had civil actions placed against him for hurling rocks at black people while screaming racial slurs at them. One year later, on April 8, 1988, Mark Wahlberg was arrested, while drunk and high, after robbing a liquor store and beating up two middle-aged Vietnamese men on the same day, just because they were Vietnamese. We know this because he verbalized his reason for beating the living crap out of them while he was doing it. Specifically, as he knocked Thahn Lam unconscious with a stick, he called him a, “Vietnam fucking shit” in front of several witnesses. Then, when the cops found him, picked him up and brought him over to the two men he has just attacked for identification as the perp, Mark said to the officers, “You don’t have to let them identify me, I’ll tell you now that’s the motherfucker whose head I split open.” He also made several remarks regarding “gooks” and “slanty-eyed gooks” during police proceedings. For his crimes he spent 45 days in a correctional facility, out of a 2 year sentence.
It is worth mentioning here that at one point, Mark Wahlberg was the number one suspect of both the Boston Police Department & Massachusetts State Police for the murder of an Asian man (though never charged for the crime,) and it is also worth mentioning that one of the middle aged fathers and husbands he attacked on April 8, 1988 lost his eye due to the absolute viciousness of Mark’s assault on the man’s face.
A teenage Mark Wahlberg quite literally blinded a man in one eye just because the kid was racist against Asians.
I also found the following quote in the comments section of CNN’s Facebook post several hours ago by an Asian man from Boston, MA;
Bui Khanh writes: “Hey Mark … remember those Asian children you terrorized on Dot Ave? … You and your buddies chased us as soon as we got off the school bus, threw rocks at us, called us names … Oh, should I remind you about the Savin Hill T stop too? Those were not reported, and I am sure you have forgotten, but hey, since we open up things that took place over 2 decades ago, might as well throw this in the mix.”
Now, I don’t know what happened at the Savin Hill T-stop, but whatever it was, it doesn’t sound good. And judging from Mark Wahlberg’s violent distant past, it was most likely a violent crime.
You could easily make the argument here that this was 27 years ago. Mark Wahlberg paid his debt to society as deemed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and has since dramatically turn his life around. He is an enormously successful actor and businessman, a husband and father of four, donates boatloads of hard-earned cash to all sorts of various charities, especially charities that help at-risk youth and Veterans’ causes, has started several charities of his own, and is, quite frankly, an admirable pillar of society. Without a doubt, Mark Wahlberg has come quite a long ways from attacking, blinding and possibly murdering Asian people on the streets of Boston. Those days are long behind him and NO ONE could realistically or rationally argue otherwise.
Now, when I first heard that Mark Wahlberg wanted a pardon from the State of Massachusetts, my first thought aside from being initially supportive was, “He probably just wants his 2nd Amendment rights back.” My initial instinct was that he wanted to be able to own and carry the guns that he uses in his movies, despite his public anti-gun stance. Lots of Hollywood elites have an attitude of, “guns for me, but not for thee.” They trust themselves with guns, (and hire guys like me to protect them with guns) but they don’t trust you or me with them.
I quite frankly didn’t give a shit about that. I figured that worst case scenario, the gun rights community could point to the fact that Mark Wahlberg was now a gun owner and would most likely become the proud holder of an incredibly rare (but not for long) Los Angeles County concealed carry pistol permit, and we could use that as yet another example of Hollywood’s (and the left’s) blatant hypocrisy on guns and 2nd Amendment rights. The best case scenario would be Mark Wahlberg becoming a gun enthusiast himself (like fellow A-lister Brad Pitt) and seeing the light on 2A rights.
Then, I actually read that CNN article…
Mark has listed three reasons for wanting a pardon for his felony convictions:
1) He says he wants to show the at-risk youth of Boston who he works with that a completely clean slate and total do-over/second chance are possible. I don’t buy it. He’s a movie mega-star and a multimillionaire. That’s the very definition of getting a second chance to make something of your life and doing your absolute best with it. He’s already proven through his life that second chances are possible. There is absolutely nothing that having his criminal record cleared up would do for his career or livelihood.
2) He says that his felony convictions could “potentially” be the basis to deny him concessionaire’s licenses to open restaurants in California and Massachusetts, and he wants to expand his Wahlberger restaurant chain. I don’t buy this, either. At all. I checked both California and Massachusetts laws, and there does not appear to be ANYTHING on the books that prevents a convicted felon from opening up restaurants in either state.
And now for the 3rd reason, listed way deep down in the article:
Moreover, he says, “given my prior record, Massachusetts and California law prohibit me from actually obtaining positions in law enforcement,” which he says prevents him from becoming “more active in law enforcement activities.”
So,
3) He wants to be a Reserve Sheriff’s deputy in Los Angeles County, CA and thus be covered by federal law under HR 218, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act.
“How do I know something so specific when he never actually said that?” you might ask…
Simple… As many of you know, I want to be both a police officer and an actor, much like our yellow menace-fighting friend Marky-Mark, over there. More specifically, I want to be a cop for my survival job while going on auditions and casting calls during my off time, and if I eventually do make enough money as an actor to do it full-time, I still want to volunteer in my community as a reserve police officer. I have an incredibly elite and rare level of training from the United States Marine Corps that only 1% of the Marine Corps Infantry, which is only a small fraction of the Marine Corps itself, which makes up only 1% of the veteran community, which only makes up about 1% of the entire population of the United States, actually has. I’m literally in the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the 1%, in terms of advanced tactical combat training. And I worked my ass off to get there. The United States government spent several million dollars on my training, and that, combined with my deep patriotism and sense of duty, leads me to want to use the training that you all paid for to give back to my community in a meaningful way, in the best way that I know to give back, despite whatever I may be doing for a full-time career. I have a passion for law-enforcement, and a desire to help people matter what else I’m doing with my life, using the incredibly unique and rare training that I’ve been fortunate and blessed enough to receive.
But what does any of this have to do with my statement that Marky-Mark wants to be an LASD Reserve Sheriff’s Deputy, and thus be covered by the HR 218/Law Enforcement Officer’s Safety Act, which allows off-duty and retired police officers to carry concealed firearms nationwide? Very simple:
The LA County Sheriff’s Department, which I was looking into for a while to work as a full-time LEO while I auditioned for acting roles during my days off, is WELL KNOWN for this. LASD has more reserve officers (800, specifically) than any other California police department. This is because the Sheriffs of Los Angeles County are well-known for giving out Reserve Sheriff’s Deputy credentials to wealthy A-list celebrities who give them large political donations for their reelection campaigns. Yes, in exchange for the right to carry a gun everywhere in United States, celebrities donate a huge amount of money to the sheriff’s reelection PAC, and they go through an abridged police academy, and are issued a badge and gun as sworn police officers, which automatically cause them to be fully covered under HR 218. The only condition that they have to abide by is that they have to donate 20 hours of their time each month to actually patrolling the streets as a cop. So for doing 2.5 patrol shifts each month, they get privileges that every other civilian does not.
The catch for Mark Wahlberg is that he is ineligible for this privilege because of his 1988 felony convictions in Massachusetts. THAT is the ONLY reason that he wants this pardon. He says he wants to “get more active in law enforcement activities.” You don’t need a clean criminal record to get involved in law-enforcement activities. MILLIONS of convicted felons all across America help the police every day, in an enormous variety of ways. They work as liaisons between gangs and the police, they work as consultants, they work as advisers, as informants of all kinds, they help with menial tasks, they give speeches on behalf of law-enforcement, and do a whole lot of other things, none of which require or allow them to carry a gun. Even celebrities like Jackie Chan have done recruitment videos for the LA County Sheriff’s Department itself, and don’t have to be (nor do they demand to become) duly sworn, armed deputies in order to do so. They do it out of a sense of community, and to help law-enforcement using their celebrity status. Not in exchange for a badge, agency credentials, and being allowed to carry a handgun with high capacity magazines around Los Angeles. If Mark Wahlberg actually wanted to “get involved with law-enforcement” and help the police, there are literally COUNTLESS ways for him doing that without actually being issued a badge and gun.
Much more importantly, being a police officer is a PRIVILEGE. Guys like me literally spend our entire lives dreaming about it, and join the military and go to college for it. We work our asses off, stay clean and away from drugs, carefully choose our friends, don’t get mixed up with the wrong crowd, and don’t commit incredibly violent hate crimes. We don’t go around beating up, blinding, or murdering Asians just because they’re the “yellow menace” Many of you have seen my handful of Facebook posts regarding my absurd struggle to get hired as a full-time municipal police officer, just because I was diagnosed with PTSD while serving my country. Now, Mark Wahlberg wants the fact that he blinded a man out of pure racism to not hold him back from having a badge, gun, and carry privileges.
Is there some animosity on my part that a job I’ve been struggling for almost 4 years to get, a job that I’ve wanted my entire life and sacrificed deeply for, would be INSTANTLY handed to him on a silver platter, despite his violently racist past, just because he’s a celebrity? Yes, absolutely. I have no problem admitting that. But ask yourself this question… How would you feel if you were an Asian and Mark Wahlberg stopped you in Los Angeles County, CA during one of his required 2.5 police shifts a month?
Even as a filthy-rich, world famous A-list celebrity movie star worth $200 million, the man has STILL never made restitution to Hoa Trinh for blinding him, nor has he even so much as reach out to him to apologize, to this very day. He even says in interviews that he’s at peace with it & sleeps fine at night. Sounds like a real remorseful, repentant guy.
I wonder how “at peace” Mr. Trinh is with only one eye…
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