Mark Wahlberg recently petitioned Gov. Patrick for a pardon from crimes he committed as a teen, but not all of the people who say they were attacked are willing to forgive him.
Kristyn Atwood said Wahlberg and his friends threw rocks at her and other students when she was just 9 years old.
“I don’t think he deserves it. I don’t think he should get a pardon. I think this should go with him as long as he lives,” Atwood told 7News.
She said she still remembers being terrorized by Wahlberg and his white friends at a Dorchester beach
“They were right up on us,” she said. “They ran to us. When they first started throwing they were probably where the fireplace is, then they just ran toward us. But the closer they got to us they stopped throwing.”
They stopped throwing rocks but Atwood said they started yelling racial slurs.
“Saying ‘kill the n******, y’all don’t have any business in our neighborhood, n****** aren’t allowed down here,’” Atwood said.
It was June of 1986. Atwood says she was on a school field trip to Savin Hill Beach when she and classmates, who were mostly black, were attacked. She said she still has a physical scar on her forehead where a rock hit her and emotional scars.
“I remember being traumatized, you know, it was scary,” she said.
At the time, Wahlberg was a teen who was in and out of trouble with the law. He served 45 days in jail in connection with this incident and for attacking two Asian men.
Since then he’s turned his life around, becoming a successful rapper, underwear model and now a top Hollywood actor who has a family and does a lot of charity work. The 43-year-old recently took the unusual step of asking Gov. Patrick for a pardon.
“I don’t know if racist people change, I don’t have any in my circle. I don’t associate with racist people. I don’t know how they change or if they change. But I think he is, the things he said and the things he did were with conviction,” Atwood said.
Atwood said she didn’t know it was the famous actor who attacked her until recently. She said in all these years, Wahlberg never contacted her or apologized.
“You have to make the people you hurt in the past better. You don’t have to make sure but you can see if they forgive you. Give your condolences, give your apologies. Nobody is asking for anything. Just say you’re sorry and you were wrong. You know you could say it to the media all day but you’re not saying it to the people you really hurt,” Atwood said.
7News reached out to Wahlberg’s Boston attorney who is handling the pardon petition but he never responded to comment.