California Gov. Candidate Proposes "Pedophile Island"
There's a good chance you haven't heard of Douglas R. Hughes, an obscure candidate hoping to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California.
But he's found a good way to garner some attention. He calls itPedophile Island.
Hughes' website details his plan to keep pedophiles from being "released back into our neighborhoods to rape our children." Here's how it works: Pedophiles and sex offenders get three options - either leave California, stay in prison for life, or move to an island of the California coast made up entirely of their kind.
Hughes, who appears to be a Republican, has designated a small landmass called Santa Rosa Island to become Pedophile Island, arguing that it is currently a waste of taxpayer money used only by park rangers and environmentalists. Pedophiles will be sent there to create a "self-supporting" community where they live out the rest of their lives.
The first pedophiles sent to the island, he writes, will be "a lead team" made up of pedophile police, pedophile fire personnel, pedophile judges, and pedophile forest rangers, among others. They will create what he calls the island's "master plan," which will include building a city hall, medical facility and other needs for the community.
They will also write the Pedophile Island Constitution.
"This 'Island' will represent a way of life that has long since been forgotten: one in which our forefathers came to this land with a wagon, some animals, seed, and tools, looking for water and land to build their lives around," Hughes writes.
He argues that the island is the best way to "provide pedophiles with a society of like individuals where they can live and work without conflict and do no harm to children - a humane place for these sick people to live out their lives if they so choose."
Hughes is not the only candidate running on a platform in part predicated on aggressive handling of pedophiles and sex offenders. In Alabama, GOP candidate Tim James is running an ad calling for sex offenders to re-register with the state every 90 days, even though "some politicians" think it might "inconvenience" them.
The Supreme Court ruled Mondaythat sex offenders can be imprisoned even after their sentences expire if they are seen as mentally ill and sexually dangerous.