During the last 150 years, New York's remarkable diversity has been both a blessing and a challenge to its police force and its citizens. With the city more populated and diverse than ever, one might expect crime and intergroup conflict to be rampant, when in fact the opposite is true. Although New York is not quite Utopia, the New York Police Department's (NYPD) impressive multiyear effort at combating crime and hate crime in particular has created a noticeably safer and more civil city. Data show that after the state passed new legislation and the NYPD increased support for its Hate Crime Task Force, hate crime in the city dropped dramatically—an important lesson for other cities.
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