A HS classmate whose family was one of a handful of non-Italian-American families when they moved into Bensonhurst sometime in the late '60s/early ‘70s and violently bullied/robbed by some of the Italian-American teens* involved in the Yusef Hawkins’ murder noted how dramatically his neighborhood changed when most of the working class Italian-Americans who lived there for decades started moving out to Staten Island and the suburbs of New Jersey and Long Island during the mid-late '90s.
While there are still some Italian-American presence in Bensonhurst today, they are nowhere nearly as dominant a presence there as they were ~2 decades ago. The large influx of Chinese and Eastern European immigrants has meant the neighborhood now has a strong Chinese and Eastern European presence.
He also says the neighborhood is much safer nowadays as the “neighborhood criminal element” he and his neighbors had to put up with before the late '90s left with most of the Italian-Americans who moved out to Staten Island and the suburbs of New Jersey and Long Island.
- He noted they were known by his family and neighbors as "the neighborhood criminal element."
** His family is of Eastern European origin.