Detecting the Asian cop: policing and the incorporation of Asian Americans into American empire

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2016, the trial of Peter Liang for murdering Akai Gurley galvanized a charged debate among Asian Americans; some defended Liang as a victim of racial profiling, while others in solidarity against anti-Black violence argued for his conviction as a police officer. Many have viewed this trial as an example of increasing conservatism among Asian Americans, yet what does the specific figure of the Asian cop reveal about Asian American support for policing? Working through a theoretical reinterpretation of Liang’s trial, I argue that policing acts as the material process for the incorporation of Asian Americans as subjects of American empire as long as they are willing to police in its interests. Through a transpacific lens that connects domestic anti-Black policing to the policing of militarized spaces in Asia, I show how the unique and uneven incorporation of Asian peoples through American policing produces the contemporary terrain of political struggle over such topics as hate crime legislation and abolition. By recognizing how transnational policing incorporates Asians as American subjects, this structural analysis complements attitudinal studies of Asian American politics to show how Asian American activists either reject or reproduce their alliance with the American state’s police power.