Kyle Rittenhouse is not far-right or a "Boogaloo adherent." There is no evidence to back those claims. These claims were made early on with zero proof by US Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley [0], then widely repeated as truth. In actual fact, he's a teenage Republican and former Public Safety Cadet [1].
He acted in self-defense. Extensive video evidence and witness testimony proves this [2]. I'll be surprised if the jury returns a guilty verdict. If you disagree, I'd ask that you review his legal team's video [2] which lays forth most of the evidence in Kyle's favor. Their analysis aligns with and augments that done by the New York Times' Visual Investigations team [3].
The assembled evidence is clear, compelling, and exonerates Rittenhouse. A deep-dive convinced progressive columnist Eric Zorn at the Baltimore Sun of Kyle's innocence [4]. Few of those writing about the case on Twitter and in print have immersed themselves in the evidence this way.
As to the California Boogaloo guy, Steven Carrillo: sure, you could call the him far-right. He wasn't a fan of police, Donald Trump, or the Republican Party, per crime scene graffiti and his social media [5]. The Boogaloo movement in general is not ideologically consistent, or consistently far-right, as outlined by GWU professor and extremism researcher JJ MacNab [6]. But to your point, he wasn't part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Carrillo and his accomplice murdered 2 victims. That leaves a significant number of deaths for which the violent elements of BLM remain responsible, and for which almost no one has been held accountable, even just in the public discourse. The tension between those downplayed crimes and the media spotlight on unruly conservatives has stoked anger among many on the right.
[0] https://twitter.com/ayannapressley/status/129878054043122483...
[1] https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/report-kenosha-shooting...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4dhPM99i4I&t=45s
[3] https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1298839097923063809
[4] https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/eric-zorn/ct-column-r...
[5] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-charged-deputy-ambu...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/14/kyle-ritten...
Doesn't alter the case in the least. Still clear self-defense. Post-hoc assignment of affiliation doesn't stick. An earlier court search of Kyle's social media revealed no far-right affiliation [0]. As things are now, the media made him a pariah, so only pariahs like the Proud Boys will accept him. Same thing happened with George Zimmerman; the sad yet predictable outcome of forcing someone out of polite society. And that’s not to mention all the death threats [1], which would probably make the offer of Proud Boy protection appealing.
The meaning of that hand sign's in the eye of the beholder, as anyone familiar with its history will know.
[0] https://www.wpr.org/sites/default/files/rittenhouse_response...
[1] https://patch.com/illinois/grayslake/rittenhouses-mom-chasti...
