Year-end statistics out of New York offer an odd juxtaposition: Despite too much ongoing gun violence - including nine shootings on New Year's Eve alone - homicides declined 19% to a possible all-time low even as lawsuits against the NYPD, the target of more claims than any other city agency,  soared 35%. In the 2011 fiscal year, New York City paid out over $550 million, or about $70 per resident, to settle a litany of personal injury claims, with the most common those for alleged police misconduct including false arrest, shooting suspects, excessive force, Occupy-related scuffles and civil rights and stop-and-frisk violations. Some of the most visible members of the department, the city's well-armed, CIA-abetted, scandal-ridden anti-terror squad, were out in force on New Year's Eve in Times Square and throughout the city. What could possibly go wrong?