Kids in the Halls of Justice: Gen X meets Gen Y in handcuffs for peace
February 28, 2003
Following the peace march and rally in San Francisco on Feb. 16, thousands of people continued to protest and hundreds clashed with the police. By the end of the day, 46 protesters had been rounded up, handcuffed and taken into custody inside San Francisco’s Hall of Justice. With the help of the National Lawyers Guild, the district attorney has since dropped all misdemeanor charges against the protestors for “failure to disperse,” along with felony charges related to the protest. One protester still remains in custody for unrelated charges.
Two of the incarcerated peace activists became friends behind bars — Steve Comstock, 21, and John Blanco, 26. Both are local students with hapa (Filipino) heritage and anti-war convictions that they shared with fellow protester and detainee, Kevin James Gardner, during their subsequent arraignments.
Gardner: You were both beaten up pretty badly by the police. What happened?
Blanco: I walked through a police line [with an airplane made of paper and sticks bearing the phrase “LUV TONS” — it simply means to love a lot]. I challenged authority during a protest. I had a bailiff in court call me a “terrorist.”
Comstock: I don’t think the [police] realized how mad everyone is, that there’s a reason. People are really so mad, they keep on protesting. That’s why there was such a huge police presence there — they don’t like it.
Gardner: How did so many of us get arrested?
Blanco: We were brought together by making a stand. It’s amazing how much support we’ve gotten.
Comstock: We definitely just got caught, picked out of nowhere, randomly. One guy was just playing the drums and he got arrested. They keep looking for a group to scapegoat. If you were out there, you saw how it wasn’t like that. It was a group of people who realized it’s f—ed up and want to do something about it. It’s that simple. They kept saying, “It’s the anarchists.” [Anarchy] is not a political party — it’s a state of mind. I want an end to violence in human relations, to be free to do things without hurting anyone.
Gardner: One of the police heads came into our paddy wagon while we were still handcuffed, waiting to be processed, and told us that many of the police share our position against the war…
Comstock: I see how the war affects different kinds of people. The average person doesn’t pay attention to the war, or they go into the military and to war because that’s the only way out. Definitely growing up poor also helps me hate war. People affected by war are mostly disadvantaged people. The people who start the wars don’t fight the wars. Most of the time when we go to kill people, it’s people of another color. Millions of Indians, millions of Asians, millions of blacks — that’s who dies from everything our government does.
Gardner: How do you relate to that?
Blanco: Being biracial. My father’s Filipino and my mother’s from Kentucky, Appalachia — Euro.
Comstock: Kind of an outsider experience, I guess. I’ve never been labeled Asian but I’ve never been labeled “white” either. I never met my dad, but he was from the Philippines, and my mom’s Cherokee and Irish. I definitely embrace all my heritages [and] I’m really paying attention to what’s going on in the Philippines right now, and the U.S. intervention — it really bothers me.
Gardner: What are your plans for the next anti-war protest this Saturday, March 1?
Comstock: Avoid getting arrested, obviously. I think the sentiment is to have more people out there. It doesn’t matter how we go — once we’re there, we’re a group.
Blanco: I need to educate and organize myself. I’m going to meetings in legal training, jail solidarity and first-aid training. The doctor who treated me and checked me for concussion [after our arrests] is the one who invited me to the first-aid training for activists. The most beautiful thing about this whole process is how people have come together.
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