The suspected gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand's history made a 'white power' gesture widely known as the 'OK' symbol in court yesterday. Brenton Tarrant, 28, is accused of carrying out a terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch, killing 49 people and injuring 48. At least one child died in the atrocities that took place during Friday prayers, while dozens more are missing. Australian Tarrant, who is originally from Grafton in New South Wales, made his first appearance at Christchurch District Court yesterday. Dressed in a white custody outfit with cuffed wrists he appeared to make the 'OK' symbol to cameras. Pictures taken in the court, pixellated at the request of a judge, showed the suspect who also appeared to smile while flanked by security guards. The sign is performed by connecting the thumb and index finger into a circle, and holding the other fingers straight or relaxed away from the palm. Tarrant clearly made an upside-down version of this gesture.History of the hand gesture is sketchy, but there has been controversy in the last year when similar signs have been used by figures in the public eye. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the three fingers make a "w" and the circle creates a "p", therefore creating the first letters of the words "White Power". After a series of political figures were pictured using sign, it appeared on English-language imageboard website 4chan entitled 'INTRODUCING: OPERATION O-KKK'. The anonymous post read: "We must flood Twitter and other social media websites with spam, claiming that the OK hand sign is a symbol of white supremacy. use the hashtag PowerHandPrivilege.".According to reports, a lot of people mistakenly think the alt-right use of the gesture originated with this 4chan hoax. But by the time this post was made in February 2017, the OK sign was well established as a sign used by far-right supporters. In September 2017, philosophy scholar and YouTube star Natalie Wynn made a video about the tactics used by the alt-right. She said: "Nazis have always taken an interest in occult symbols, like the black sun, or the swastika. "But more obscure symbols can be useful as a kind of secret handshake that lets Nazis recognize each other without normies taking notice. "The best symbols to use for this purpose are ones that are not primarily associated with fascism, or at least have some other meaning, such as the othala rune, or the iron cross. Better still are symbols that, until adoption by fascists, are completely innocuous. "Modern fascists have taken to using almost arbitrary emoji as a way to wink and nod at each other, notably the frog, after Pepe, the milk, and the OK sign. ".Last year, police officers in the US were suspended for posing for a photo doing the gesture. The ADL published an article last year that states: "It is important to realize that the 'OK' gesture is a nearly universal hand gesture and most usage of it is completely innocuous. "Even when us

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