EXCLUSIVE: Victim's girlfriend speaks about beating

NEWARK, N.J. (WABC) -- There is relief now in the Newark apartment of the man seen in the video being brutally beaten, allegedly by three men, bent on settling a $20 debt.

"He can breathe again. He's good, he feels better about it. Its justice served," the victim's girlfriend said.

Police have arrested 22-year-old Ahmad Holt, 23-year-old Jamaar Gray and 31-year-old Raheem Clark.

They've been charged with the summer beating of a grown man with a belt. They allegedly made him strip and then put him through the public humiliation of a flogging with the belt.

It happened in broad daylight with a crowd of people watching.

One of the suspects was allegedly recording a video that would eventually go viral.

It was an attack that the victim's girlfriend told Eyewitness News' Jeff Pegues had her boyfriend running scared for months.

"He was scared, dipping and dodging," the victim's girlfriend said.

All of that, she says, is a thing of the past.

Now that the video's public she says the victim feels safer now with the support of many in the community behind him, including the mayor.

"We do not tolerate this viciousness," Newark Mayor Cory Booker said.

The mayor also scolded those who watched it all happen last summer and did nothing to stop it or report it to police.

"I understand what their reputations were, but that still is not an excuse. It is still not an excuse to remain silent," Booker said.

The victim's girlfriend says she appreciates the sentiment. But insists the reality on the streets of Newark prevent many in the city from speaking up, even when it comes to something as brutal as this.

"Because if you speak up, you never know what someone might do. It's called snitching. That's why nobody talks, just not going to get involved," she said.

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