ABSTRACT
On a warm June day in 1994, a large crowd of residents gather around midday on the corner of Cheddar Road in Balsall Heath, an inner city district to the south of Birmingham city centre. Given the predominantly male, and largely South Asian, composition of this crowd, passers-by may have mistaken it as a group making their way to the nearby Willows Lane Mosque, although a closer inspection of the home-made placards and signs they hold would suggest otherwise. Hastily daubed with slogans – ‘Kerb-crawlers, we have your number’, ‘This is a green light zone not a red-light zone’ – these signs proclaim the purpose of this self-ordained community picket, to displace street prostitutes and kerb crawlers from the streets of Balsall Heath. Some cars slow down to see what the fuss is about, before their embarrassed drivers speed away, often to cheers from the growing crowd of residents. Occasionally, women emerge from local houses, and, recognised by the pickets as prostitutes, are subjected to verbal abuse – ‘Go home slag’, ‘We’re putting you sluts out of business’ – although the presence of community elders, and the reminder that this is a peaceful protest, seem to temper the exuberance of the younger protesters, who begin to pick up stones to hurl at prostitutes and their clients. Later that afternoon, the pickets disperse, their initial excitement in the confrontation wearing off, but a dedicated core remains, huddled around braziers, maintaining their vigil long into the night.
