While those of us on the outside harbor some generic fear that “government”, that big, amorphous, monolithic monster that threatens to smother us in our sleep out of its purported love and devotion, is busy doing evil things, we occasionally learn that there’s a whole ‘nother world going between jurisdictions on the inside.  Enjoy it, since it’s the only thing that stops government from effectively emasculating the Constitution.

The New York Times reports that the feds and the New York Police Department are busy sending nasty letters to each other over who should be empowered to conduct secret wiretaps.

In his five-page letter on Oct. 27, [NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond] Kelly wrote to Mr. Mukasey charging that the F.B.I. and Justice Department had thwarted the Police Department’s intelligence efforts in two specific cases. He wrote that federal authorities were “constraining” critical terrorism investigations in New York and said the federal government “is doing less than it is lawfully entitled to protect New York City,” concluding that “the city is less safe as a result.”

While I can’t prove this, I hear that Mukasey’s original decision was to limit his response to “bite me.”  He’s not as verbose as Kelly.  He was ultimately talked out of it and instead chose to go the “more pages means a better argument” route.

Mr. Mukasey, in a seven-page retort, dated Oct. 31, dismissed what he called Mr. Kelly’s “alarming conclusions” as factually incorrect. Mr. Mukasey wrote that Mr. Kelly was in effect proposing that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. disregard the law, as spelled out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.

Not only would your approach violate the law, it would also in short order make New York City and the rest of the country less safe,” wrote Mr. Mukasey, a federal judge in Manhattan before he became attorney general.

Some might question whether Mukasey was being disingenuous, contending that only the DOJ is worthy of covert wiretapping because it, unlike the NYPD, is so trustworthy.  Not me, though.  This smacks of the basic jurisdictional disputes that have plague law enforcement forever.  As bad as some might think the FBI are when it comes to being concerned for the constitutional rights of citizens, the feds believe with absolute certainty that the local cops, even when the locals are the NYPD, compel the use of the word “keystone” before their official name.

Some will be angered that these disputes impair law enforcement’s ability to protect us from threats.  Not me.  But for these turf wars, and the internal disgust that one arm of law enforcement has toward others, the potential harm to our freedoms is mind-boggling.  One of the few things protecting the Constitution in this atmosphere of fear is the fact that none of the children in the law enforcement sandbox want to play with each others. 

While it’s true that the Department of Justice has the wherewithal to do plenty of harm on its own, the aid of the NYPD being unnecessary when it comes to pervasive secret eavesdropping, don’t underestimate the impact of another 350,000 fingers in the pie. 

Let the boys squabble amongst themselves all they want.  It keeps them busy and away from the rest of us.

H/T Orin Kerr at VC