5.4.21 Bee-otch of the Day: Bobby Paul Edwards

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Name: Bobby Paul Edwards
Age: 57
Occupation: former restaurant manager
Last Seen: jail
Bee-otched For: modern-day slavery
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To some people in the south, slavery is alive and well. 

But, the law is the law.

Bobby Paul Edwards is serving a ten-year jail sentence for forcing a mentally challenged black man to work for no pay at the restaurant he managed in Conway, South Carolina, which is by Myrtle Beach, J&J Cafeteria. He was sentenced in 2019 for beating cook John Smith multiple times with a belt and pots and pans and forced him to work over 100 hours per week without pay.

Now, a judge has ordered Edwards to pay Smith $546,000 for all the pain he caused him. Originally, he was only ordered to pay him $273,000, bit the Department of Justice ruled that overtime compensation and the delay of payment should be added to his settlement. 

Smith, who has an IQ of 70, started working at J&J when he was 12 in 1990. In 2009, Edwards started managing the restaurant and that's when the abuse began for Smith. Edwards ordered Smith to live in an attached apartment and ordered him to work without a day off. According to court documents, Smith was not allowed to take any time off. If he didn't comply with Edwards' orders, he threatened that he would be arrested. 

According to court documents, Edwards would dip metal tongs into hot oil and pressed it onto Smith's neck. He would also punch Smith and beat him with pots and pans. Smith's family would even come visit and Edwards would hide him because he had scars on his body. Thankfully in 2014, a concerned waitress finally spoke out and turned Edwards to a labor board.

In 2019, Edwards plead guilty for enslaving Smith and was given a ten-year jail sentence. With $546,000, Smith can live decently for a good while. However, it will not erase the scars he received from Edwards. 

As for J&J Cafeteria, they are still in business, though people have hounded Yelp with negativity surrounding its racist legacy. It might explain why it has no website or social media page.

You know, it's a shame that I've heard it all: bounced paychecks and abuse from bosses. Hell, when I was a teen, I worked at a restaurant myself and worked with a child molester with mental issues. However, he wasn't convicted yet, so he was still hirable... barely. 

The point is, is that I hope J&J has been sold since and that if they have new owners, they can return integrity into their business. Otherwise, I wouldn't be eating there if I were visiting Myrtle Beach. I hope that Bobby Paul Edwards will rot in hell for what he did and will receive torture worse than what he gave Smith. 

When slavery officially ended in 1863, some people didn't get the message. 

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