It's contagious.

Not to be outdone by his portly peer to the south, Governor Paterson has commuted the prison sentence of John White.

Who is John White?

The fatal confrontation was set in motion after a Sound Beach party where police say alcohol was present. Daniel Cicciaro Jr. and his friends piled into cars to confront White's son, Aaron, over an Internet message they mistakenly thought he had sent, threatening to rape a girl at the party. John White, alerted by his son, emerged from his house with a loaded gun and ordered the teens to leave. Within three minutes, Cicciaro had been shot in his face. It surfaced much later that another youth, pretending to be Aaron White, had written the Internet message.

Of note is Rev. Roderick Pearon's comment:

"The right to defend one's home, family and ultimately one's self is at the heart of our history and law," said the Rev. Roderick Pearson, who was chairman of Suffolk's African-American advisory board at the time of the shooting.

Well said, Reverend.