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Proud Boys claims Derek Chauvin judge Peter Cahill is 'one of them' after he uses ‘OK’ hand gesture in court

The judge was most likely gesturing the number three than the 'OK' symbol but that didn't stop many extreme right wingers to see him as their man

Extreme right group Proud Boys has claimed that Peter Cahill, the presiding judge in  the famous Derek Chauvin trial, is "one of them". Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, is currently on trial over the death of George Floyd. Floyd's death sparked fury across the world, with many taking to the streets and the Black Lives Matter movement becaming one of the biggest protests in history.

Last week, Cahill had supposedly made a "hand gesture" that led the Proud Boys to believe that he's "one of them."

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What is the 'OK' symbol?

The "gesture" that Cahill made was assumed by the Proud Boys to be the 'OK' sign which is considered to be a hate symbol and stands up for "White power" and has been appropriated by supremacists since 2017. In the year 2019, the 'OK' gesture was added to the Hate Symbols Database by the Anti-Defamation League. The sign came to be associated with White power after a hoax that occurred in 2017. An Independent article reported that users of an anonymous message board called 4chan began "Operation O-KKK' to trick people into thinking that the gesture was a symbol of White power. One of the users posted, "We must flood Twitter and other social media websites with spam, claiming that the OK hand signal is a symbol of white supremacy."

It was after this that Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen among other extremists started using the 'OK' sign. To them, the 'O' and 'K' letters formed by the hand stands for 'W' and 'P' in White power.

Is Judge Peter Cahill a White supremacist?

The clip of Cahill gesturing the sign was posted on the Western Chauvinist Telegram channel with the caption, "Judge in Derek Chauvin trial, our guy confirmed." The channel that has 45,000 subscribers and has advocated for Chauvin's release also posted, "BREAKING: Judge in Chauvin trial has ties to Proud Boys." Many members of the Proud Boys have also been charged in the Capitol riots as well, but have denied claims that they are racist. 

A Daily Dot article revealed that Cahill did not know that the sign was associated with the Proud Boys or any other racist group for that matter and in fact has a "reputation for fairness," as per NPR. Back in 2015, he was responsible for dismissing charges against a few people who were organizers of a BLM protest that took place at the Mall of America. Reports indicate that one of those people told NPR that the veteran judge was "respectful" and "fair."

Daily Dot also reported that the judge was most likely gesturing the number three than the 'OK' symbol. As revealed by a Telegram user, the judge had asked, "This is juror number three, right?" while he made the gesture. As for now, there has been no report if Cahill has responded to these bizarre accusations.

One user took to Twitter to post a short clip of Cahill making the gesture writing, "So... Derek Chauvin just got found innocent. Turns out the JUDGE is a Proud Boy. Yeeeeooooooo."