Who is James Jay Lee?

SILVER SPRING, Md. - James Lee was no stranger to downtown Silver Spring. During a much tamer, yet equally bizarre streetside protest against Discovery Communications in 2008, Lee tried to hire people to join his crusade.

"He was essentially taking homeless individuals and paying them sums of money to protest along with him at the site of this building," according to Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy.

He took his antics a step further that week, tossing large amounts of cash in the air in the Silver Spring business district. The episode was videotaped by a passerby and posted on YouTube. Lee was arrested, charged and convicted of disorderly conduct. A judge ordered Lee to stay away from Discovery headquarters for two years, a probationary period that ended two weeks ago.

Thomas Leonard says his brother-in-law was a troubled man.

"I'm very shocked that he took to these kinds of measures," Leonard told Fox News in a telephone interview Wednesday night. "We know that since there were a few deaths in the family that had his spirit take a nose dive and he kind of started becoming a darker type of a character."

In the middle of the hostage crisis, Lee spoke by telephone with an NBC News producer in New York. "Do you have a gun?" Lee was asked in a taped conversation broadcast during the Nightly News. "I have a gun and I have a bomb," Lee answered. "I have several bombs strapped to my body ready to go off."

Lee's website rantings against Discovery were just as chilling.

"Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels," he wrote. "Find solutions for global warming, automotive pollution, international trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy," was another of Lee's postings. "Programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed."

A native Hawaiian, Lee was a one-time artist in the movie industry, according to his sister's husband. Leonard says Lee was jailed for a few years in southern California.

"He's perhaps one of the most talented persons, but misguided at the same time, that I've ever met. He's incredibly bright but obviously misguided."

He often ranted against Discovery Channel on the website http://www.savetheplanetprotest.com/

Lee issued his list of demands on the site. A portion is seen below.

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution.

I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

These are the demands and sayings of Lee.

More of his posting at: http://media.myfoxdc.com/Documents/ProtestWebsite.pdf

Lee was arrested on charges of littering and disorderly conduct in February 2008 after a protest outside Discovery Channel. He was reportedly throwing money at people on the street so they would gather around his protest on Georgia Avenue.  Video on YouTube shows some of the protest scene. Click on the video tab to watch.
 

The blog Silver Spring Singular has been keeping track of Lee for awhile.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Could This Be the End for Our Hero?

http://www.silverspringsingular.com/2008/02/could-this-be-end-for-our-hero.html

James Jay Lee's myspace page