There Are No Children Here: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

One night, Pharoah and Lafeyette go to the nearby stadium to try to make some money. Children from the neighborhood often go to the stadium on game nights to offer people to watch their cars in exchange for some money. Occasionally, when drivers refuse, the children might break a window and steal something as retribution, although most children simply want to earn some spending money.

Pharoah takes this task seriously and partners with Porkchop to guard people’s cars. He also sometimes asks stadium-goers if they have any extra tickets, which he often receives thanks to his small build and innocent face. He might then use them to watch a game, although sometimes stadium attendants refuse to let the children in even if they have tickets. This attitude only fuels the anger that Horner residents harbor against the stadium, as they feel that game nights reveal a deep injustice. Horner residents wonder why the police only appears on game nights, to protect the mostly-white stadium goers, but refuses to enter the neighborhood at other times to protect the local residents’ security.

That night, after the police tells the neighborhood children not to watch cars, Pharoah and Porkchop return to Horner to play basketball. However, Lafeyette decides to stay and help a parking attendant wave in cars, which can give him some pocket money, until the police tells him too to stop. It remains unclear whether Lafeyette talks back to the policeman or is too slow to obey, but the policeman suddenly grabs him by the collar and throws him into a puddle of water, telling him that “These white people don’t have no money to give no niggers.”

When Lafeyette’s friends run to tell LaJoe about what has happened, she hurries to the stadium and the police releases Lafeyette. One of the policemen told Lafeyette that he could get hurt if he stays out all night, but Lafeyette retorts that, so far, in his life, only the police has hurt him. This episode impacts Lafeyette, forcing him to question his previously neutral attitude toward the police.

Pharoah, too, begins to think about important social issues, such as race. After staying away from the stadium for a few weeks, he realizes that he can make money by performing a humorous dance for one of the stadium goers, a white man, who finds Pharoah’s imitation of a chicken humorous. Pharoah, though, realizes that there is something embarrassing about doing this. He begins to wonder if all black people live in the projects and are poor, why there are not more black politicians, and concludes that the police does not like black children—his very first expression of bitterness against anyone in his life.

Lafeyette’s incident at the stadium reminds LaJoe of the neighborhood’s fraught relationship with the police. While Horner residents understand that spending the entire day at Horner can be dangerous for policemen, they also feel that the police is inefficient. Given that they never patrol at night, they essentially relinquish full control of the neighborhood, allowing gangs to be the primary authority that Horner residents are forced to defer to.

Mostly, though, Horner residents recall past episodes of police brutality. In the 1960s, moved by hope in activism and a feeling of community, Horner residents organized to demand a traffic light at a boulevard where two children had recently been hit. When the city refused, residents formed a never-ending picket line across the boulevard, thus forcing traffic to stop. When the police arrived, people feared a violent confrontation but the police only arrested a few people.

Later, however, the police killed the Soto brothers, two brothers from the neighborhood, in the space of five days, with motives that did not convince the residents. The neighborhood immediately exploded into a violent, armed riot, in which ten policemen and a twelve-year-old girl were killed.   

Although this encouraged the city to finally install a traffic light, two months later the police killed two Black Panther members in a raid, claiming that the men had opened fire first even though it was later obvious that the Black Panthers had fired only one shot, in contrast to about ninety by the police. These deaths became famous across the nation because of the men’s political relevance and, despite evidence of police malpractice, all the officers involved in the raid were acquitted.

These deaths destroyed a lot of trust between Horner residents and the police. LaJoe has never understood how the police could kill people and then lie about their involvement instead of simply apologizing. At the same time, she also knows that some police officers are good people and actually care about the children. However, the police’s lack of accountability makes her feel resentful and hurt. Experiences of injustice, too, LaJoe knows, will also only increase Lafeyette’s cynicism and suspicion.

When LaJoe’s mother, Lelia Mae, and Weasel’s girlfriend move into the apartment, it becomes even more overcrowded than it already was. At the same time, Lafeyette enjoys Lelia Mae’s company, as she tells them stories about Horner’s past wealth and safety, and gives Lafeyette, who enjoys helping others, someone to take care of. Lafeyette and Pharoah are less affected by the overcrowding than by their father’s depression. Unable to get rid of his alcohol and drug habits, Paul feels pessimistic about getting his job back and even steals the television set Lelia Mae had given the boys to buy drugs.

Lafeyette deeply resents his father for failing to deliver on his promises and for choosing drugs instead of his family. Paul understands these feelings, since he knows he has harmed his family’s life and his own life by taking drugs. Still, he wants to be present in the apartment if he can, so that his children do not grow up fatherless like he did. Unlike Lafeyette, Pharoah usually tries to cheer his father up. One day, though, he asks his father why he drinks, saying it smells bad and makes his father behave in a strange way. The question surprises Paul, who tells himself that he should try to stop drinking.