Voice From the streets: the ely 30 have had rough justice
In May 2023 a riot broke out in Ely, Cardiff, after two young boys were tragically killed when their electric bike crashed into a lampost. The boys, aged 15 and 16, were being chased by a police van when they died, and on the night of the deaths, anger against the cops erupted. Of the thirty people who were recently sentenced for their part in the riots, almost half were under the age of twenty when the unrest took place. In total the group has received sentences totalling almost 140 years.
Sue Leader, an Ely resident and activist, hits back at the punishments handed down and the treatment of the area by generations of politicians.
By Sue Leader. Cover image: Ely youth centre.
A young neighbour of mine was recently handed a four year jail sentence for throwing stones at the police during the Ely riots of 2023.
Others were handed 6 years for the same thing. While some of the people who participated in the violence were just there to cause trouble, others were drawn into acts they wouldn’t have normally had anything to do with.
Two boys died, needlessly. Ely was awash with journalists in the aftermath of those terrible few days. The people of Ely again, branded as jobless thugs by a parasitic press who, I might add, are nowhere to be found when Ely gets passed over for rail links, jobs and investment in the young, or investment of any kind.
We are human beings. With dreams and hopes for our children and grandchildren, just like anyone else in this city. From Ely, we can look down the Ely valley into Cardiff city centre, and all across the city, we can even see down to the Severn Bridge, and sometimes across to Somerset.
We can see daily evidence of continued investment in other parts of the city. Never has it come to Ely in any meaningful way. Not in my lifetime. Some of the fine buildings along the Grand Avenue were built with money raised by church congregations or club members. The North Ely Youth Club was built from donations from men who came home from World War I.
We have been, by and large, fucked over royally by those politicians who were supposed to do our bidding, from a local level right up to Westminster. We put them into positions of power, time and again. Faithfully. What did we get for our faith? Fuck all, is what. We only have each other.
Around 47% of people here don’t vote. Why should they? No party has ever improved our lot here. We rarely see politicians up here. We only used to see them when they wanted our vote, that fact was never lost on us.
So, is it any wonder stones were thrown, petrol bombs were lobbed, and harsh language was used against the police? I think not. I’d like to say I don’t condone violence and for the most part, I don’t. I saw enough of it in my childhood.
Perhaps I should say though, I’m not at all surprised at what happened. A lot of people were terrified to be in their own homes that night. It was like a scene from hell, and for that, there ought to be some accountability. Some form of justice for that night of rough music.
I keep thinking if the judicial system were still allowed to transport felons to the colonies, my neighbour would be gone forever. It doesn’t seem right to sentence someone for venting their frustration over the way we live.
How can marking dissent in the only way left to a generation, forgotten for so long here in Ely, be punishable by such draconian sentences?
Contrast this to the boys in Hampshire, who were initially not even given rehabilitation orders for violently raping two girls. Yet they destroyed their victims with their hideous personal violence, degraded them in every conceivable way, and filmed it.
The Ely 30 had rough justice. I’d like to see a review of the sentencing. Where is the press now? Again, we are left to lick our own wounds. Are there any sounds of concern from the Senedd as to why there was so much violence and ill feeling that night. No there aren’t. There won’t be either, and we won’t hold our collective breath
