Cop’s spat with activist over helmet creates ripple on social media

CHENNAI: A video showing a policeman abusing a social activist for asking him to wear a helmet while riding a bike in Chennai on Friday had gone viral with hundreds of netizens expressing displeasure towards the attitude of the man in khaki.

Activist Kasimayan said that the incident happened on Friday morning while he was driving from Padi flyover to Anna Nagar RTO. He had noticed a policeman on a bike without a helmet and speaking on a mobile phone using headphones.

Kasimayan asked the cop why the latter wasn’t wearing a helmet. “He then said that he was a cop and that he’d behave like that,” he recalled. After driving some distance, the cop alighted from his vehicle and intercepted Kasimayan’s bike, the video showed.

When he asked why he was being stopped, the cop was seen being belligerent and asking him, “What is your problem? I have enough problems, podaa,” the policeman was seen saying.

When he again brings out the point about wearing a helmet, the indignant cop says, “I will not wear a helmet, podaa.”

The video elicited myriad responses from netizens, including adverse comments against cops. And others wondered if the helmet rule was applicable to the common man and not those in uniforms.