The 39-year-old steadily realized the ins and outs of Florida public information legislation and the authorized boundaries of recording public officers, whereas police departments throughout South Florida realized to take care of him and his ever-present insistence on filming them on the clock.
“I at all times movie the police! Know your rights!” he declared on his YouTube web page, Jay’s Surreal Camera.
On the night of October 14, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue discovered Lopez in a deteriorating state in a residential complicated within the Miami Gardens space, in response to police information. His girlfriend advised first responders that he had taken a blue 30-milligram capsule, after which had fallen asleep for a couple of minutes.
After figuring out he had overdosed, fireplace rescue rushed Lopez throughout the county line to Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines, the place he was positioned on life assist.
Lopez died on October 25.
A medical expert’s report, just lately obtained through a public information request, discovered that his explanation for loss of life was a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, amphetamine, and benzodiazepine.
Jay’s older brother, Joey, stated the loss has been insufferable for his prolonged Cuban household.
“My little brother Jay was completely one of the best brother,” Joey stated in a press release. “He was one of the best father, additionally very loving and really caring. And he at all times helped me out after I was in my downfalls.”
San Joaquin Valley Transparency, one other First Amendment auditor, posted condolences on Jay’s channel, saying the Miami activist “by no means spoke in poor health of anybody.” The message famous that Jay traveled across the nation to do visitor appearances on San Joaquin Valley Transparency and different auditors’ channels.
“He was a optimistic individual. He confirmed me and my sons an incredible quantity of affection and assist,” the message says.
A muscular 39-year-old with facial tattoos and piercings, Jay Lopez had a no-holds-barred method to confronting police on digicam. He would problem officers’ authority and sometimes ridicule them when he discovered they did not know the legislation.
“Who the hell you assume you might be flashing your gentle at?” Jay says in a single video after a Lee County police officer shines a flashlight at him and asks him to maneuver away from the scene of a site visitors cease.
“I did not break any legal guidelines, so thoughts your personal enterprise and shut up and do your job!” he exclaims.
Jay was a part of the First Amendment auditing motion, which goals to file police and public workers whereas urgent them on their grasp of constitutional rights and state legislation.
Depending on how provocative their ways are, First Amendment auditors might be labeled as agitators by native police departments.
Joey, who grew up with Jay in Miami, stated he feels an obligation to hold on his brother’s legacy by persevering with to make First Amendment auditing movies. He has an eponymously named channel that options his exchanges with native police, utilizing the hard-nosed stance championed by his late brother. The brothers had filmed a number of movies collectively earlier than Jay’s loss of life.
“I introduced him into watching First Amendment audit videos on YouTube and… shortly after watching videos, a little over [a] couple of weeks, he opened up his YouTube channel, and that’s when Jay’s Surreal Camera was born,” Joey stated.
Aside from needling cops, Jay Lopez received below the pores and skin of locals as an artist on the Made-in-Dade Tattoo Studio in Wynwood, the place he specialised in “black and gray realism tattoos.” He had intricate, sharp designs and versatile imagery in his portfolio.
Jay’s YouTube stays energetic with greater than 50,000 followers. Many proceed to go away their condolences.
DEA spokesperson Erin Knight-Grimming tells New Times that the company’s Miami workplace warned final July of an alarming improve in fentanyl-related overdoses in Florida.
Knight-Grimming says the DEA has issued a brand new public security alert as assessments present 60 p.c of fentanyl-laced pretend prescription capsules within the nation comprise a probably lethal dose of fentanyl.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,622 folks died by drug poisoning within the United States in 2021; a majority of these deaths had been attributed to artificial opioids resembling fentanyl. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported 8,411 opioid‐associated deaths within the state final yr, a seven p.c year-over-year improve.