Political Wrinkles - Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,000,

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Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,000,

Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,000, court says

I doubt he has the money, maybe the corporation does, but why isn't he getting more time in jail, is what I wonder.

Quote:

A Black man with intellectual disabilities who was enslaved for five years at a restaurant in Conway, S.C., should be awarded double the amount of restitution from the White man now imprisoned for the crime, according to a recent court ruling.

As part of his 2019 guilty plea to a forced labor charge, Bobby Paul Edwards, 56, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered by a court to pay back John Christopher Smith $273,000 in unpaid wages and overtime compensation at J&J Cafeteria.

Quote:

The Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled on April 21 that the previous amount decided by a district court “had erred” in not accounting for federal labor laws entitling him to $546,000, or double the amount he was owed from his imprisonment between 2009 and 2014. Through physical violence, threats and intimidation, Edwards coerced Smith, 43, into working more than 100 hours per week without pay...

Quote:

The appellate court sent the ruling back to the district court to recalculate Smith’s award based on the delay in getting his payment under federal labor laws.
“When an employer fails to pay those amounts (regular and overtime pay), the employee suffers losses, which includes the loss of the use of that money during the period of delay,” the court argued in its filing.

Edwards’s public defender didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest ruling.

Quote:

Smith started washing dishes and busing tables at J&J Cafeteria in 1990, when he was just 12 years old. He had loved his full-time employment there when the business was operated by Edwards’s relatives, according to court documents.

But when Edwards took over managing the restaurant in September 2009, paid wages and decent treatment would soon be nonexistent.
Edwards moved Smith into a roach-infested apartment he owned that Smith’s attorneys later described as “sub-human,” “deplorable” and “harmful to human health.”

Smith was forced to work more than 100 hours each week without pay and no days off as Edwards took advantage of the Black man’s mild cognitive disability, court records state.

Edwards’s “reign of terror” included keeping Smith isolated from his family, threatening to have him arrested and calling him racial slurs.

Smith said he felt like he was in prison with the threat of death.
“Most of the time I felt unsafe, like Bobby could kill me if he wanted,” he said, according to court records. “I wanted to get out of that place so bad but couldn’t think about how I could without being hurt.”

Smith alleged that Edwards injured him many times over the years. He was whipped with belts and kitchen pans and punched multiple times by Edwards, court records state.

One of the more heinous alleged acts of brutality came when Edwards thought Smith didn’t deliver fried chicken to the buffet as quickly as he demanded. In response, Edwards dipped metal tongs into hot grease and pressed them into Smith’s neck, according to court records.

Quote:

Fellow employees at the restaurant who heard or had seen the abuse were reluctant to report it out of fear of Edwards.

Geneane Caines helped put an end to Smith’s abuse when she reported Edwards to authorities in October 2014. Caines had a daughter-in-law who worked at the restaurant and got involved because she cared about Smith’s safety, according to WYFF.

“Customers that were going in there would hear stuff and they didn’t know what was going on, and they would ask the waitresses, and the waitresses were so scared of Bobby they wouldn’t tell them then what it was,” she said to WMBF.

Smith was immediately taken into Adult Protective Services, and Edwards was charged with second-degree assault and “attempt to establish peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude or human trafficking.”

Fear can immobilize a person. I suspect this was fear, poverty, and a belief the local system would back Edwards more than any whistleblower.
Thank God somebody finally did the right thing.

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

1) How could this have gone on so long without another employee, regular customer, or inspector knowing?!?!...:confused

2) Color is irrelevant here, unless the object is to divide the readers based on race....This is a blatant attempt...:yes :mad

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd (Post 1003462)

1) If you knew the deep South like I know the deep South, you would understand. Ignoring and overlooking because people are of a different station, class or even color still goes on. This case and the George Floyd case bring it to the light and no matter the marches and talking heads, maybe, just maybe things will start to change. Because people will know there is a way to report. I think these folks knew the lawmen and probably police even went into the place at times. Everyone just assumes Edwards is being kind to give this guy a job and depending on the ages of customers hollering at employees who are black or poor or black and poor, isn't taken seriously. I myself got on to an inlaw for telling my grandson (who is white) he was acting like a little n___word__. My daughter told me most people around there (This was Georgia) wouldn't think anything of it. Ans that was just eight years ago.
Plus people need a job. If they thought the law wouldn't do anything then all they were in for is losing their livelihood.
And maybe they really were afraid of the guy as in bodily harm. He sounds like a pretty violent individual to me and not screwed too tight.

2) I thought that too and especially since it is the WaPo, though others have the same words in the title. But as I said in #1 this is South Carolina. It is a very prejudiced place. fyi: In Florida in the 70s a few people still "owned" black people who worked on their farms. The farms were off the beaten track and the workers kept in even further away fields in shacks. Had they been white someone may have noticed anyway. Since they were black they were let's say...invisible. Not an active prejudiced just an ingrained one most southerners did not know they had.

:) Number three: This is a good case for special federal prosecution under hate crime violations because it is such a heinous thing to do just because you know among your peers you can get a way with it, and as you can see, the charges were insufficient to meet the crime in state court.

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd (Post 1003462)

1) How could this have gone on so long without another employee, regular customer, or inspector knowing?!?!...:confused

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd (Post 1003462)

2) Color is irrelevant here, unless the object is to divide the readers based on race....This is a blatant attempt...:yes :mad

I'm not sure why this should divide readers based on race.
As you imply, EVERYONE should be outraged.
Every moral person should be united against this kind of crap.

The only people this would be divide here are those that would defend/excuse the actions... based on race or anything else
from those that condemn it.

But "Sex-Trafficking" which is far more wide spread is simply slavery by another name.
And there are many immigrants that are house slaves in the U.S.. and many of the neighbors don't have a clue.
BTW All races and nationalities participate.

No need to be defensive.
But we should be aware and call it out if possibly.

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr wonder (Post 1003514)

That is odd. But not completely unheard of.
Some people will ignore outright murder and rape happening in front of their eyes.
And most folks probably wouldn't imagine that something like this was going on. And would Assume they are NOT seeing what they are seeing. Because well ..."Mr So-n-So is nice man." 99% of the time

I'm not sure why this should divide readers based on race.
As you imply, EVERYONE should be outraged.
Every moral person should be united against this kind of crap.

The only people this would be divide here are those that would defend/excuse the actions... based on race or anything else
from those that condemn it.

But "Sex-Trafficking" which is far more wide spread is simply slavery by another name.
And there are many immigrants that are house slaves in the U.S.. and many of the neighbors don't have a clue.
BTW All races and nationalities participate.

No need to be defensive.
But we should be aware and call it out if possibly.

An article with the headline starts with "Black man enslaved by White" can't be anything but race baiting. There is no circumstance under which the exploitation of a mentally challenged employee is acceptable but the headline evokes an image of a return to slavery because to the radical Leftists running the Democrat party racial division is key to their drive for political power. :rolls

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Its a shame Edwards only got ten years in prison.He should have gotten more that for kidnapping, extortion, forced labor and probably what other charges they could have gotten him for criminally taking advantage of a mentally disabled man. I doubt Smith will ever see a dime of that money.

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr wonder (Post 1003514)

That is odd. But not completely unheard of.
Some people will ignore outright murder and rape happening in front of their eyes.
And most folks probably wouldn't imagine that something like this was going on. And would Assume they are NOT seeing what they are seeing. Because well ..."Mr So-n-So is nice man." 99% of the time

I'm not sure why this should divide readers based on race.
As you imply, EVERYONE should be outraged.
Every moral person should be united against this kind of crap.

The only people this would be divide here are those that would defend/excuse the actions... based on race or anything else
from those that condemn it.

But "Sex-Trafficking" which is far more wide spread is simply slavery by another name.
And there are many immigrants that are house slaves in the U.S.. and many of the neighbors don't have a clue.
BTW All races and nationalities participate.

No need to be defensive.
But we should be aware and call it out if possibly.

Yes, everyone is outraged about this. But why bring Race into it? You know if the roles were reversed the headlines would not read, "White man enslaved by Black restaurant owner."

It would read "Mentally impaired man enslaved by Restaurant owner, Because Race does not matter in cases like this.

Why do you think they made race the focus of the headline?

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dog Man (Post 1003657)

Yes, everyone is outraged about this. But why bring Race into it? You know if the roles were reversed the headlines would not read, White man enslaved by Black restaurant owner.

It would read "Mentally impaired man enslaved by Restaurant owner, Because Race does not matter in cases like this.

Why do you think they made race the focus of the headline?

It does the left no good to leave race out of the story in this particular case, therefore it is highlighted in the headlines. The is straight out of the left wing playbook and echoed by Rahm Emanuel "Never let a crisis go to waste". In this case, it was a crisis with only one victim, but nevertheless it must not go to waste.

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by GetAClue (Post 1003658)

Yep, and no doubt it had the desired effect on a hell of a lot of people.

Also, what is the difference between "Enslaved" and Worked without pay?

When my salaried employees work over time, and I do not pay them extra,
are they enslaved? I know it is different from this scenario, but still a legitimate question. I believe it might depend only on the race of the person not being paid.

Re: Black man enslaved by White restaurant manager should be awarded more than $500,0

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dog Man (Post 1003663)

your salaried employees don't work 100 hours per week without pay for five years and live in a roach infested room you put them in.
Race is in the story because we have a history of enslaving Black people as recently as the 70s in this country. To work on farms and in kitchens in places like Georgia nd SC and Alabama, Florida, and even in more northern states when the farms were off the beaten path. Mabey only because it's easier to get away with if they are Black, it's still a race thing yes. But it is also a crime against a mentally challenged person. The guy who did it is scum we all agree, and I hope that man he hurt gets some of that money. In clothes and games or whatever and never has to work again unless he wants to.
I still can't help but wonder where his family went.