The Monsters are Due on Eighth Street

"After Riccocelli had gone, Derek went up and down both sides of the street shouting to the neighbors to come out and confront him. "Don't be punks!" he shouted. As he neared the Palmers' house, Grace came around the corner, and she and Amanda and Neil, who had been standing in the yard, went to him. "We got babies in that house, man! It's winter, for God's sakes!" Derek shouted. Sharon opened her door and came out onto the porch, but she was the only neighbor to do so. "We got sweet innocent babies in that house, man! What can y'all be thinkin?" His family was able to calm him, but before they could get him across the street the police arrived." (pg. 10)

 Jones here illustrates how far the neighbors on Eighth Street are willing to go to hurt the less fortunate Bennington's. Rather than acknowledging the hardships they face both financially and culturally, the neighbors always felt that the Benningtons never belonged on their street, and now have an opportunity to exile them. 

What was Derek's, the usually stronger more confrontational of the family, purpose in emphasizing that there are babies in the house?