It's about defending our way of life, remember? From Long Island Newsday, Feb. 21:

DEADLY HIT-AND-RUN SPREE
Cops: Man drove recklessly, hitting several cars before a crash that killed other driver in Massapequa

A Coram man who had low blood sugar drove his green Infiniti with his two children inside wildly for several miles along Sunrise Highway yesterday afternoon, banging into at least four vehicles before killing a driver in Massapequa, Nassau police said. "He was driving really reckless," one witness told a friend.

Timothy Brosnan, 67, of Bay Shore, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Reached by phone, a woman who said she was his wife was too upset to comment.

Joseph Peterson, 27, of Coram, the driver of an Infiniti G20 and his two children, Alyssa Gonzalez, 9, and Dena Peterson, 4, were injured. Joseph Peterson was in the intensive care unit of Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow last night, police said. Alyssa was admitted to the hospital with a broken nose; Dena was treated and released.

No one answered messages at the Peterson home last night.

Peterson's car first hit a Saturn in Lindenhurst at Broadway and Sunrise Highway and then kept on going, said Det. Sgt. Stephen Palmer of Nassau's Homicide Squad.

The motorist who was struck there called 911 and followed the Infiniti west on Sunrise Highway into Nassau , Palmer said, where minutes later a Jeep Wrangler driven by Patrick Marckesano, 19, of Lindenhurst, was rear-ended.

Marckesano called his friend, Dave Voyles, and his mother and told them he was driving west on Sunrise Highway near the Sunrise Mall when someone rear-ended him.

"He . . . told me, 'You are not going to believe what just happened,'" Voyles recalled. "This guy just hit me 15 seconds ago," Marckesano said, according to Voyles.

Marckesano wasn't hurt, though he said he was hit twice from behind by Peterson's Infiniti. "He was driving really reckless," Marckesano told Voyles.

Marckesano said he called 911 and watched the Infiniti speed off, driving on the grassy median and hitting a sign.

As he was talking to police, he saw Peterson's car slam into a Ford Focus, driven by Brosnan, that had turned left onto Sunrise Highway near the mall.

Immediately afterward, the Infiniti hit a sport utility vehicle, Marckesano said. Marckesano said he also watched as the driver that hit him was carried into an ambulance and noticed there were two young girls in the backseat of Peterson's car.

The series of crashes ended about 1:20 p.m. at Louden Avenue.

Afterward, police spent at least six hours in the bitter cold trying to piece together the events that led to the fatal crash. Both directions of Sunrise Highway were temporarily closed.

Shards of glass and car parts were scattered on both sides of the highway. In a westbound lane was the crumpled Infiniti. Near it was a car's engine.

On an eastbound lane was a blue Ford Focus, the driver's side smashed in and the airbag deployed.

Details of the crashes were vague last night. Suffolk police responded to two hit-and-run accidents yesterday - in Lindenhurst and Amityville - involving what they believed to be an Infiniti G20, the same car that caused the Massapequa crashes.

See other reasons WHY WE FIGHT.