Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn is the latest HBO documentary that dropped last week on August 12th and is currently streaming on all of its platforms.
I’ve been highly anticipating this documentary since the trailer dropped last month. I have to say it’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen all year – incredibly powerful and timely. I was a bit familiar with the story due to a Spike Lee interview, as the murder happened around the time that his seminal classic Do The Right Thing had just been released.
This documentary tells the story of Yusuf Hawkins, a Black teenager who was murdered in the summer of 1989 by a group of white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a predominantly Italian-American neighborhood. Yusuf and his friends had come to the neighborhood to inquire about a car that was for sale. But the white kids from the neighborhood (10-30 of them) had been lying in wait for them. The reason – they believed that Hawkins was involved with a neighborhood girl.
Yusuf Hawkins’ death sparked outrage in New York, especially when word got out that the police had asked the Hawkins family to stay silent to prevent civil unrest. A flood of civil rights protests and activism followed and was met by intense racist vitriol from residents. His death had been the third death that year of a black youth by angry white mobs, and it was merely a breaking point for the black community. Of the 30 or so people believed to have cornered Hawkins and his friends, only eight were charged.
To me, this documentary couldn’t have a more timely release with the recent Black Lives Matter movement that happened a few months back and is still happening now. Yusuf’s death took place in August 1989, 4 months after the Central Park 5 incident, and the documentary makes sure to bring it up to show just how bad the racial division was in New York at the time.
Thirty-one years later, it’s incredibly sad how not much has changed since race-related killings are still very relevant. I applaud the doc as it does a great job of showing how it’s something that has always been a problem in this country dating back to the 1600s. I was born in 1992, so I was shocked at some of the old footage that was shown, while I’ve seen videos online of people being racist in public some of the footage shown of Bensonhurst residents is very shocking.
There’s a police interview shown of one of the young men who was a part of the group, and he flat out says with a straight face “Racism? Never seen it,” and I legit was stunned. The documentary shows plenty of footage from newsreels saying otherwise as residents are shown to be extremely racist. Yusuf’s death was race-related as the men had weapons on them, including baseball bats, because they wanted to attack the black men that they knew were coming to their neighborhood.
The doc isn’t biased as we are shown proof through archival footage and audio that shows several of those involved and various Bensonhurst residents, casually referring to Black people by the N-word. To some, they might feel the documentary is one-sided. Still, it thankfully gives us the facts to show that this was 100 percent race-related regardless of the narrative that the residents try to spin.
Directed by documentarian Muta’Ali Muhammad, the film utilizes a mix of archival footage, photos, witness statements, news footage, and candid interviews with Yusuf’s family and friends. It helps to shed light on how tragic this death was because you can see how alive Yusuf was and that he was going places. Muhammad examines in great detail the events that led to that fateful night. Anything relevant to the day of the incident is covered, even how one of Yusuf’s brothers didn’t go with him because he missed a meet up due to returning some movies to a rental store.
The film also includes interviews with Defense Attorney Stephen Murphy, Reverend Al Sharpton, who became the family’s spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Douglas Nadjari, activist Dr. Lenora Fulani, former Mayor David Dinkins, and Joseph Fama, who was one of those convicted with Yusuf’s murder. They all provided another side to the story that Yusuf’s family doesn’t. They detail how they came to help the family, how they learned of the case, and so on. In the case of some, you can tell how much the story touched and hurt them and how they wanted to help this family.
I was interested in the interview with Fama because he is the only one from the other side who allowed himself to be interviewed, Keith Mondello, who said Fama was the shooter and was also convicted to lesser charges and did eight years in Attica chose not to be interviewed.
Fama is still in prison as he is not eligible for parole until 2022. As per usual in these stories, he claims that he is innocent and didn’t do it. He was simply a bystander who fled out of fear, not guilt. It’s hard to know or believe if he did it or not as it’s not my place, but the documentary also doesn’t give us much evidence to dispute otherwise.
My issues with the documentary were few. I wish we would have gotten more evidence and facts shown to us about the case itself as we mainly cover the killing, protest, and the circus of the whole situation. Another issue I had is that while the documentary does give us a lot of time with Yusuf’s family to talk about the murder and the following events, we don’t get enough of the trauma that the events caused. I wanted a bit more insight into how death affected them because we see his mom and friends talk about their ordeal. It is engaging and is most effective. I feel the story’s political side took over a bit too much over the documentary, which wasn’t the intriguing part for me. Had there been fewer politics and more family, this could have been an all-time excellent documentary.
In all, I highly recommend this documentary at 100 minutes. It’s very insightful and worth a watch.
