Vigils for Michael White hitting snares.

Stephannie White, mother of 14-year-old Michael White who died in a Gyeongsan sauna last month, has been holding vigils outside the scene of his death every Sunday. Recently she and her companions have run into trouble outside the Royal Hawaii Sauna. An excerpt of an update from their Facebook group:

June 1st vigil: There were only 3 of us today... two women and a pre-teen. There was a crowd of men who were really making us uncomfortable. So I and my friend started taking pictures and DVD video of them. One man especially hid his face and ran away when we did this.

After reviewing the pictures & video, my lawyer has adviced me not to do anymore vigils unless there are at least ten people with me... as this is not a safe thing to do also or with only a couple of people.

A few people had planned to visit Gyeongsan this past weekend, but the vigil was called off because of safety concerns related to the intense anti-beef protests. Another update:

Subject: No Vigil on Sunday~

Thank you all for your interest and concern, but it is better not to have the vigil this Sunday.

There is strong embassy concern for Americans' or those demonstating with Americans so there will NOT be a vigil this Sunday.

Please DO NOT travel to the Oack Su Dong area of Gyeongsan.

Those of you who are on the American services email list should have already gotten an email warning of massive US beef demonstrations.

This warning has more to do with Beef than Mike's issue. But for our own safety, this is not a good weekend.

You can stay updated via the Facebook group and via MightieMike.com. You can also find the transcript of the May 20th interview with Stephannie White here. From the interview comes this tale from among the first vigils:

When we first arrived, there was a group of men across the street at the sauna. When I made arrangements with the police, I told them that I would be across the street from the sauna. That we would not picket, we would not shout, we would not prevent patrons from coming or going from the sauna.

Across the street from the sauna is a park, and so that kind of works well for us. We arrived at the park and began to set up and we noticed on the corner, the sauna’s located on a corner, there was a group of men and they were very intently watching what we were doing. So it seemed like they were very much prepared for us to be there.

They didn’t accost us. They didn’t bother us in any way. But, after a few minutes of us setting up, you know, basically a table, some you know, photographs of Mike, had a sandwich board out, there were some flyers. And, you know, there was some people helping with this…there was…maybe eight to ten people at the set-up point.

And, the men across the street who were intently watching us, there were four men in suits and the rest were like in pullovers and slacks and things. More working Joe type guys. The suits left and the working Joes kind of scattered in the periphery.

The police told me when I went to get permission for this, that they would have a, a car there with a couple of officers to legitimize our presence as well as act as protection, should the people try to give us a hard time. That did not happen. The police did not come.