A CCTV film shows the police lied again and again about how two teenagers died in Ely, Cardiff, on Monday. The deaths triggered protests and then riots after cops attacked people.

The two people who died have been named locally as Kyrees Sullivan, 16 years old, and Harvey Evans, 15 years old.

The BBC announced on Tuesday afternoon that it had “verified footage appearing to show a police van following two people on an electric bike minutes before a fatal crash that sparked a riot in Cardiff”.

The cops and their political supporters had insisted there was no such chase before the teenagers died. They didn’t just say it once—but to the press, in official statements and on social media.

South Wales Police said its officers arrived at the scene only after the crash. The South Wales police and crime commissioner, former Welsh Labour leader Alun Michael, claimed the riots were sparked by false “rumours” of police involvement in the deaths.

He went on, “‘I think it illustrates the speed with which rumours can run around with the activity that goes on on social media nowadays, and that events can get out of hand.”

It was all lies from the top. Ely resident Gethin told Socialist Worker, “I don’t respect the police, but even I was shocked when I saw this footage. Do the police seriously expect us to think they didn’t know there had been a chase until the film showed it?

“Of course they knew. They lied and covered it up. This has been dragged from them. There will be more protests, and there should be.”

Only after the BBC released the video did the cops admit a portion of the truth. Chief Superintendent Martyn Stone said, “We’ve received CCTV footage that shows a police vehicle following a bike just prior to 6pm.

“South Wales police has also made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct to ensure the matter receives independent scrutiny.”

Local resident John Urquhart, who tweeted with great insight about the events, wrote, “It’s hard to put into context just how violent what the police have done is. They came to our community. They killed two kids. And this is the thing—I don’t even care what the kids were doing because of what came next. They lied about it.”

They added, “When you attack grieving people so you don’t have to experience or admit to the tragedy, or experience the consequences of having caused it, what you do is fracture people apart at their most vulnerable. And when that grief is the death of two young people—honestly, there is very little that is more violent.”

One of the reasons the cops are so brutal is that they regard people in Ely as second class because they are poor.

Ely has more children eligible for free school meals—over 59 percent—than any other area in Wales, while nearly three quarters of households have at least one deprivation measure, as measured in the 2021 Census. It has the seventh highest proportion of long term sick or disabled people of all the areas of Wales.

We can guarantee that the cops will now try to slur those who died. The police will say they were behaving in a risky or illegal manner—as if that deserved a death sentence. There won’t be any justice unless people take to the streets and fight for the truth—in Ely and wider.

Watch the video: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65687785