A small fire happened in New Orleans and basically nobody cared. Samuel Michael Schildkraut spent some three and a half years in New Orleans and recalls, "As with many cities and towns, you'll meet some very nice people, but it was hard to find open minds in New Orleans, there were oh so few.".
Sam also reflects that the one other advantage of living in New Orleans, although he is now glad to be gone from there since the actions of Hurricane Katrina, was having his own cable television show which still airs in areas of New Orleans. He has had a few guests stars including John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted.".
As for the "small" fire, let's look at what led up to it. Sam worked at Bally's Casino New Orleans and reported to police that co-workers and supervisors were cheating and stealing on the dice tables. Two days later he was assaulted by a supervisor and again Sam called police and was terminated over the phone the following day. He has an existing law suit now some three years old waiting for trial.
A block from where Sam lived last in New Orleans was a bar known as Slapshots which apparently has since changed ownership. Back in those bad days before any Katrina, Slapshots was run by people who, as Schildkraut states, probably supported inbreeding. Sam was harassed by a Slapshot's karoake host John Heindel, some six feet tall to Sam's basically 5'4''. Heindel was given a summons and appeared in court over threatening Schildkraut. When all else failed and Heindel continued stalking Schildkraut, Sam requested Heindel to step outside and Heindel chickened out.
As time passed, Sam met a black gentleman by the name of Claude Eugene Owens who stated that he was called the "n" word at Slapshots and the staff and management did nothing about it. Sam allowed Claude to appear on his show and state this, and during the two and half month period that that particular episode aired, Sam's front door was set on fire. The following day, a written death threat letter was left at Sam's door. In the death threat letter, it wrote against blacks and wrote against Sam being Jewish. It also stated that Sam must drop his lawsuit against Bally's Casino.
Hours before the fire, Sam went by, as usual, to area businesses. He often spoke with managers and employees and all was well. However, after the airing of the episode with Claude Eugene Owens, things changed in certain parts of Sam's hood. One example was Greg, manager of Zach's Frozen Yogurt. Greg's father apparently owns the dump. Greg has been quite pleasant to Sam until the period of the airing of Claude Eugene Owens on Sam's show. Suddenly Greg was shoving Sam and spitting on him. Sam called police and manager Greg drove off. As time passed, Sam learned from one of the parents of an employee of Zach's that Greg, of about age 50, was harassing young staff members, such as a female under the age of 18, and forwarded this information to authorities along with an answering machine message of another co-worker at Zach's supporting Sam and what he had to say against Zach's and other issues.
The New Orleans Fire dept. and police gave Sam a horrid runaround as to proper investigation of the fire. Fire Investigator Thomas Saint Germain promised Sam to come back within a week of the fire with a member of the Alcohol, Firearms, and Tabacco unit and investigate further which NEVER HAPPENED. The NAACP and Mayor Ray Nagin have emailed Sam with promises they never kept as to doing something about a white man's front door set on fire after his defending a black man's right to be heard on television as to racial remarks made against him.
One of Sam's neighbors, in front of Sam and other witnesses, told a police officer that one Chris Lesley admitted to her that he left the death threat note at Sam's door. Oddly enough, Chris Lesley also appeared on Sam's show numerous times, and was on the show to spout off that he had no doubt that the fire was set by Greg of Zach's and/or John Heindel. Apparently Greg, John Heindel, and Chris Lesley are still in the grasp of the New Orleans authorities.
As of late, Sam has had harassing phone calls and emails from the likes of the Heindel KLAN and Chris Lesley. Authorities are returning calls but what will happen may be the same runaround, who knows?
Sam also points out that not only does nobody care when a white man is harassed for protecting a black man, but states that he recently saw a documentary on the so-called "Restoration Period" which was basically the first ten years after the assisination of President Lincoln. It was also in New Orleans, back then, that perhaps some fifty people, perhaps all blacks, were murdered, and nobody investigated anything; and now some 140 years later, nobody cares about a little fire which is the spark of perhaps huge flames that big brother doesn't want to extinguish !!!
