Polarized Policing Alex Yang, 10, and Kayi Hueng, 7, of Newton, protest discrimination and violence against Asian-Americans at a rally on the Boston Common, Sunday, April 11, 2021 Tori Bedford / GBH News May 25, 2021 At a recent event on anti-Asian violence, sponsored by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the conversation turned contentious. While the panelists all agreed that anti-Asian hate is rising and needs to be addressed, they quarreled over whether more policing and more prosecution should be part of the solution. This division even led to opposition to the recent federal bill to combat anti-Asian hate crimes (which President Biden signed last Thursday) because “[h]ate crime classifications are really about justifying and reforming a system that we are trying to replace.” Clearly, the issue of policing is divisive and is driving a wedge within communities of color.