Former KKK clan member running for town mayor says: ‘I was in the boy scouts too’

They are a racist hate group with a long history of violence but now one former Klu Klux Klan member is running for mayor in a southern Florida city.

John Paul Rogers has his sights set on becoming the next mayor of Lake Wales believing he would be the perfect ‘fair minded’ ambassador.

However, locals and critics fear his association with the group means he is not the right man for the job.

Democrat Mr Rogers insists he left his high-ranking position as Florida Grand Dragon within The United Klans of America 30 years ago.

In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s the organisation was the largest and most violent KKK group in America.

In 1988 it disbanded after losing a $7million civil law suit for its role in the murder of a 19-year-old Alabama teenager Michael Donald in 1981.

According to The Times newspaper, Mr Rogers has refused to apologise for his past, saying: ‘If being against communism, against drugs and in favour of states’ rights is wrong, then I’m wrong.

‘I was in the Boy Scouts and the Cub Scouts and nobody ever asks me about that.’

How do these racist fuckwads end up in politics?