Mark Wahlberg's history of hate crimes has resurfaced after the actor paid tribute to George Floyd last week.
George Floyd, a black man, was arrested by Minneapolis police on Monday, May 25, for reportedly using a counterfeit $20 note in a store. While being detained, ex-cop Derek Chauvin - a 19-year veteran of the force - knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, after which he passed away.
Protests, both peaceful and violent, have since erupted across the US and in major cities across the world.
Back in 1998, the erstwhile rapper served 45 days in prison, of a two-year sentence, after attacking two Vietnamese men, Johnny Trinh and Thanh Lam, while attempting to steal beer near his home in Boston.
Two years earlier, in 1986, he was amongst a group of caucasian teenagers who hurled rocks and shouted "kill the n*****" at a group of mostly African-American students. He was issued a civil rights citation.
Speaking to the Associated Press in 2014 about the crimes, per The Metro, Wahlberg said, "I have apologised, many times."
"The first opportunity I had to apologise was right there in court when all the dust had settled and I was getting shackled and taken away, and making sure I paid my debt to society and continue to try and do things that make up for the mistakes that I’ve made."
However, social media users found cause to dredge up Wahlberg's history of hate crimes after he took to social media to post about the Black Lives Matter movement last week.
The 49-year-old shared an image of Floyd, which he captioned: "The murder of George Floyd is heartbreaking. We must all work together to fix this problem. I’m praying for all of us. God bless."
"We live in a world where John Boyega might be blackballed for speaking out against racist violence and Mark Wahlberg will always work despite being guilty of it," wrote one Twitter user, while another corroborated "Talking like you don’t have a whole section dedicated to your “Hate crimes” on your wiki. Better make the donation 1/10th of your net worth - a tithe- since you’re so devout."
"Could you please speak out about how you benefitted from white privilege when you were arrested for a hate crime and only served 45 days? It would highlight the hypocrisy of our criminal justice system to your fans who are unaware," added another.
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