Asian American Men Were Made…

…to be cops, apparently.

Just about every Asian American man on TV right now is an officer of the police. Or, it seems that way:

Reggie Lee is the sidekick to the main character/sidekick duo in Grimm.

 

And that back up cop from The Mentalist. The one who used to be famous for that cell phone ad.

And  the cute guy on Lost. Now on Hawaii Five O.

So none of them are the main characters. Or the main side kick. But they are significant ensemble characters who come across like regular American dudes. Not very exciting American dudes, but still like-able. Even on the recently defunct Community, Professor Chang morphed into a maniacal campus rent-a-cop. That’s four vs… two non police officers?

On Parks and Rec, Aziz Ansari gets a pretty nice role as Tom Haverford, civil servant. And Harry Shum, on Glee. As a high school student. Anyone else? Not that I can think of.

But why cops? They’re not particularly awesome cops, so it doesn’t seem like an evolution of the martial artist stereotype. They’re not super sleuth detectives, so it doesn’t seem like an evolution of the wunderkind genius archetype, either. Is it a coincidence, to be blamed on the rampant proliferation of cop dramas on TV and nothing more? And when will they get to be main characters?