This documentary is, not surprisingly, a complete distortion of the events that took place that day in August, 1989. The "white mob" that confronted Hawkins and his three friends included an African-American teen who lived a block away. Over 2,000 African-Americans lived in Bensonhurst at the time. That's about 2,000 more than lived in some of the upscale "gentrified" sections of Brooklyn at the time. There were Jewish kids in the "mob," including one of the instigators. Hawkins' three friends were left unharmed, as everyone ran off when the lone shooter opened fire. The sole reason the four teens were confronted was the fact that the girlfriend of one of the "ringleaders" had a quarrel with him and promised to bring in outsiders to start trouble with him. Hawkins and his three pals stopped right in front of her house while looking for another address. They were in the area to look at a used car. They were showing some of the kids in the "mob" (which was not "angry") the paper with the ad for the car when the lone shooter opened fire. The front page of the local tabloids the next day showed some white women from the street where Hawkins was shot kneeling down around him trying to comfort him. Thanks to the cooperation of the "angry mob" members and other local residents, the shooter and the instigators were identified and arrested. A candlelight vigil attended by dozens of local residents was held in Bensonhurst a few nights after the shooting and this was also reported in the local media. The reason the community reacted negatively to the protest marches that followed was twofold; the rejection of the implication collective guilt for the entire neighborhood, which was a lot more ethnically and racially mixed than many other NYC neighborhoods, and the fact that the leaders of the marches were Al Sharpton, C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox, three of the most notorious racial arsonists in NYC, if not the nation.
In short, a tragic case of mistaken identity by a lone loser was used to smear a fine community where hundreds of African-Americans lived, shopped, attended school and worked each day without incident.
I might also add that a few years before these events, an Italian-American groundskeeper in the nearby Marboro Housing Project was shot and killed in cold blood by a black teen who used him for target practice in a clear racial assault There were no marches and no documentaries about that incident for some reason.