Malpractice is a carefully orchestrated negotiation played out in front of a jury audience. Is it unfair? Probably. But it works because everybody knows the rules.

What felons learn from boot camp.

Kidnapped at gunpoint off the street in the Village; later offered hookers, marijuana.

Possible cop cover-up.

While crime is down across New York, nowhere has it dropped more than in Washington Heights and Inwood, where felonies have declined by 85 percent over the last fifteen years.

To be a mobster in New York is to be a celebrity. Mafiosi are the psychopaths with a fan base. And vile as their actions have sometimes been, it has to be said that as dramatis personae, they’ve rarely disappointed. This past season has been especially fine, with a cast and plot turns that Sopranos creator David Chase must have envied.

Bloomie embraces and Randy Mastro rolls his eyes.

Sharpton’s “closer,” Sanford Rubenstein, to rep the 50-bullet victims.

Two forensic pathologists, an ex-con, and the hunt for one irresistible designer dog.

How the NYPD’s elite Cold Case Squad, which investigates long-unsolved crimes, is falling victim to a slow bureaucratic death.