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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, AUGUST 30, 2020
Demonstrators marked the 31st anniversary of Yusuf Hawkins’ death with an Aug. 23 march in Bensonhurst. @nycfoodblog
BY ROSE ADAMS
Marchers took to the streets of
Bensonhurst on Aug. 23 to honor
Yusuf Hawkins, a 16-year-old Black
teenager who was fatally shot after
a mob of white youths attacked
him in 1989.
The small protest, which
marched to the site of Hawkins’
murder on Bay Ridge Avenue and
20th Avenue, aimed to pay tribute
to the 31st anniversary of Hawkins’
death and raise awareness about
racial violence in Bensonhurst, according
to one of the march’s organizers.
“Obviously, all of the current
tragedies like George Floyd
and Breonna Taylor are unfortunately
well known because they
just happened,” said Celenia Diaz.
“I wanted to have this protest to
remind people that although now
we’re more aware that racial violence
is common, this has been
happening for a really long time.”
Hawkins, an East New York
resident, was visiting Bensonhurst
with a group of friends on Aug. 23,
1989 to buy a used Pontiac when a
group of Italian-American locals
attacked him with bats under the
wrong impression that he was dating
a white girl in the neighborhood.
One attacker shot Hawkins
in the chest, killing him.
The killing sparked a fl ood of
outrage and increased racial tension
throughout the city. Civil
rights leaders took to the streets
of Bensonhurst in protest, where
white hecklers confronted them,
calling them racial slurs and holding
up watermelons to mock them.
The public outcry ultimately aided
the election of the city’s fi rst Black
mayor, David Dinkins, and helped
undermine incumbent Edward
Koch, according to The New York
Times.
One teenager who was said to
have led the mob, Joseph Fama,
then 18 years old, was charged
with the murder and sentenced
to 32 years to life in prison. Fama
has pled not guilty and has long insisted
that he was a bystander to
the incident but not involved.
Though Hawkins’ murder
spurred widespread unrest, the
killing has largely faded from
public memory in the intervening
years, said Diaz.
“I’ve been living in Bensonhurst
for over 10 years, and I never
heard of this story ever,” said Diaz,
who learned about his death from
the HBO documentary “Yusuf
Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn,”
which was released on Aug. 12.
“I’m on Instagram and I see the
trailer for it. Someone posed it and
said, ‘When is Bensonhurst going
to change’ and I said, ‘What?’”
During the Aug. 23 march,
about 25 protesters gathered in
Seth Low Playground to pay their
respects. The producers of the recent
documentary and Hawkins’
family did not attend, but they gave
Diaz their support, she said.
From the playground, the protesters
set off down Bay Ridge Avenue
to 20th Avenue, carrying
signs and chanting. Diaz said that,
though the turnout was small, residents
also came out of their homes
to show their support.
“Everyone came out of their
houses, so a rally of 25 people
turned out to be a whole community,”
she said. “All races, Italians,
Mexicans, and Asians, just stood
there and heard us out.”
One attendee said that he
marched to shine a light on the
racism that prevails in southern
Brooklyn.
“I felt like it was very empowering
because we tried to give remembrance
to a person who was
super young,” said Queens resident
Jonathan Rampagoa. “We
tried to bring that awareness to the
community.”
‘Let us play’
Local youth athletes join elected offi cials in calling on the city to resume issuing
permits for organized youth sports leagues. Photo by Paul Frangipane
BROBY JESSICA PARKS
A group of southern Brooklyn
elected offi cials, families and
sports coaches on Aug. 24 called
on city offi cials at Bay Ridge’s
Shore Road Park to immediately
resume issuing permits for youth
sports leagues in time to start up
their fall seasons.
“Children and families are
desperate to be able to partake
in safe, responsible activities despite
this pandemic,” said State
Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who
represents a large swath of southern
Brooklyn from Marine Park
to Bay Ridge.
Citing COVID-19 restrictions,
city parks offi cials posted on
their website that the Parks Department
would not issue permits
for the fall sports season —
which runs from Sept. 1 to Nov.
30 — and said the situation would
be reassessed later in the fall.
Meanwhile, sports fi elds are
open to the public and are often
used for pick-up games, which
the politicians argued provides
more safety hazards than organized
leagues who would have
outlined safety conditions and
schedules to abide by.
“By allowing group sports but
not issuing permits, City Hall is
sending a message that pickup
games are okay but organized,
permitted, youth league sports
are somehow not okay. This idea
completely defi es all available
logic,” said Bay Ridge Councilman
Justin Brannan.
Youth leagues for low-to-moderate
risk sports — where there is
low-contact, like swimming and
fi eld hockey — were included in
Phase Three of the state’s reopening
plan, which the city moved
into on July 6, but city kids have
still been kept away from playing
alongside their fellow teammates
as of the end of August and into
the foreseeable future.
“The mayor’s scattershot approach
to what’s allowed and
what isn’t continues to mystify
and frustrate families and small
businesses. There’s no rhyme,
reason, or adherence to the reopening
standards,” said Congressman
Max Rose, who represents
Bay Ridge and Staten
Island. “Let our kids play and
play safely.”
Parents joined the politicians
in support of the return of organized
youth sports and vouched
for the safety of the programs.
“You see parks are open globally
and it really isn’t causing
transmission of the virus,” said
William Hart, a Prospect Heights
parent of three children in the
Brooklyn City Football Club. “It
doesn’t really make sense that we
can’t have organized play when
we’re just having people out here
anyway.”
On the same day supporters
gathered on Shore Road, Gov.
Andrew Cuomo announced that
school-sponsored low-risk sports
are able to begin practice on Sept.
21 and may begin competing inter
regionally on Oct. 19. Highrisk
sports, such as football, are
similarly able to begin practice
on Sept. 21, but cannot play competitively
until a later date of Dec.
31.
REMEMBERING YUSUF
March through Bensonhurst honors Yusuf
Hawkins on the 31st anniversary of his killing
Brooklyn families call for
return of youth sports