Journal: Experiences With Street Gangs, Organized Crime, and Terrorism
Experiences With Street Gangs, Organized Crime, and Terrorism: Journal Week One
Brandie Lynn Schnobrich
Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Walden University
CRJS-4103: Drugs, Gangs, & Organized Crime
Michael Kemp-North
July 18, 2021
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Experiences With Street Gangs, Organized Crime, and Terrorism
Journal Week One
July 18, 2021
I have never had any personal experience with organized crime or terrorist groups that I know
of. The October 1 shooter Stephen Paddock may have committed a terrorist act, but I do not
think he was a part of a terrorist group. If I consider that, I did know people at that concert, and
all came out unharmed. I donated blood that next day to help with the wounded of that tragic day.
As for the criminal justice system we as a city could not have been prouder of the way everyone
came together and helped that day. From the security guards at the Mandala Bay to the EMTs
called to the scene. Police officers had the strip looked down within minutes and ran into gunfire.
The courts quickly and respectfully took care of lawsuits from the wounded and family members
of the deceased without judgment (no pun intended), taking into consideration what those people
had gone through and were going through. Being born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada had
always left me feeling like a stranger in my hometown. Your neighbors are constantly changing
and just as fast as people move here, they seem to move out. It is not necessarily an ideal place to
raise children or the norm for a place to have a family in the U.S. That day was an eye-opening
experience for me because I saw unity, a community that came together and supported one
another whether affected by the tragedy or not. I wish it had been through different
circumstances, but for the first time in my life, I was proud to be a “Las Vegasin”!
I have had two other instances that directly affecting me in my life, that involved street gangs.
The one I will mention took place in a town right outside of East St. Louis in Fairmont City,
Illinois. A high school friend of mine and ex-girlfriend of my brothers was brutally raped and
murdered by two gang members from East St. Louis, Missouri, over money owed for drugs she
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had gotten from one of the young men. Santoin D. Russell and Terryon Triplett were in a gang
called ‘East Side’ and were well-known crack cocaine dealers. They raped and beat my friend to
death with a tire iron on February 03, 2008, while the girlfriend of Russell held her down. For
four years the Madison County and St. Clair County police departments in Illinois kept her case
open and in 2012 caught all three of her murderers. The prosecution cut a deal with Triplett for
his confession ultimately giving him 20 years in prison and Russell the one who slammed the tire
iron down her mouth and through her skull (sorry so blunt but it still angers me) got 60 years and
his girlfriend Karina Merideth got 23 years (Crime Sider, 2012).
Reference
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Crime Sider [Staff]. (2012, July 26). Jury convicts Illinois man of beating woman to death with a
tire iron. CBSNews.com. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jury-convicts-ill-man-
of- beating-woman-to-death-with-a-tire-iron/
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