Man stripped naked and whipped in videotaped attack
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The haunting video, shot on a hot summer night, starts with a young man being ordered to strip naked as he is berated by a group around him.
One person squirts his body with water. Another demands money.
When he does not hand any over, the beating starts. As the naked man is lashed repeatedly, those surrounding him laugh above the crack of a belt hitting his skin.
City officials announced Wednesday that they had arrested three people they say participated in the August attack and filmed the 2 1/2-minute video.
The men were identified as 22-year-old Ahmad Holt, 31-year-old Raheem Clark and 23-year-old Jamaar Gray. Charges against them include robbery and aggravated assault. Police said Holt administered the beating, using a belt provided by Clark.
City Police Director Samuel DeMaio said all have gang affiliations and criminal histories.
"This is a human tragedy," Mayor Cory Booker said at a press conference. "This is the kind of violence and brutality that we've seen rear its ugly head in Newark, around the nation, around the globe, that allows one human being to assault the dignity, to demean and to viciously attack another. And I believe, for one, that this is unacceptable behavior. I know the standards in the community are the same."
Police did not immediately provide the names of the suspects' attorneys.
DeMaio said the video didn't come to the attention of police until Feb. 8. It is unclear when it was posted on the Internet, and it has since been removed from YouTube.
Acting Essex County prosecutor Carolyn Murray said her office's cybercrimes unit is investigating the upload of the video.
The victim, now 21, "reluctantly" cooperated with police, DeMaio said. He has since moved out of the neighborhood where the beating took place out of fear of retaliation.
The victim's father apparently owed someone $20, prompting the beating, and the group took $10 from the young man, DeMaio said. He suffered welts and abrasions from the lashing but did not require hospitalization, DeMaio said.
The video incensed community members and law enforcement in the city, which has long grappled with violent crime and recorded 88 murders last year.
"It shows there is a brutal culture in this community," Booker said. "It's not the city's culture. But it is a subculture of violence and crime that we have to address. It's not just here in Newark."
Booker and DeMaio said they were disturbed that no one reported the beating, which took place on a warm August night and was witnessed by people who did not speak up until approached by police in February.
"When you witness something like this, stand up and speak up," Booker said. "That's what allows violence in the city to go on."
Holt was already in custody in Trenton on unrelated charges, DeMaio said. Clark was arrested, and Gray turned himself in with an attorney Tuesday night, DeMaio said.
The girlfriend of one of the suspects was arrested for heroin possession.
No rev jesse or rev al about this
They will get their 20 bucks worth
When I saw the headline "Man striped naked and whipped" I thought Hillary C. had a new job...
This is horrific to read. Children are being raised in this horrible environment. The responses to these crimes must be swift and severe regardless of race or background. This can only be solved by the community as a whole and will take every good person in Newark to get involved at some level.
It is interesting though, how many people in the black community blame whites for all their problems, while racist white people really don't need to do anything at all to blacks, other than just sit back and laugh while black people terrorize and kill each other.
"...many people in the black community blame whites for all their problems,..."
Actually, blacks in the inner-cities should be blaming their problems on drugs. It's just a coincidence that the people supplying it were white.
"Former police officer Mike Ruppert was forced out of the LAPD for investigating police ties to CIA drug trafficking."
Â
Ruppert: "I am a former LAPD narcotics detective, I worked South Central, and I saw the hands-on working relationship, the interface, between local police departments and the CIA. What we saw was a deliberate effort by the agency to make sure that large quantities of high quality cocaine got into the inner-cities, like Los Angeles...The agency has dealt drugs throughout this country for a long, long time."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b6kf5PIzX4Â (5:10 into video )
@str1ngb3nd3r OK... I saw the video, but I'm still not clear on WHY the CIA wants to do that. Can you answer that? And why has no one done anything about it?
(Just in case)Â My initials are EM, so if you see it in the headlines with something like:Â "Man arrested for having downloaded child pornography"...within the next couple of weeks, you'll know it's not the truth.
@myopinion240 That rabbit hole runs deep. I could speculate but I don't want to be labeled a threat to the government. Just look at what's happening today...gangs everywhere...gun violence...addiction...property crimes...racial division...poverty etc. etc...all these problems and the hypocritical war on drugs has been a boon for law enforcement and privatized prisons. Fear is a powerful tool used to enact new laws...Problem, Reaction, Solution.Â
Follow the money.
As far as why no one has done anything..."Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."
    -Woodrow Wilson-
Just more black on black gang crime. No stopping that and as long as no innocent folks are involved I really don't care.
@RalphCramdenÂ
 Um, I think the beating victim was innocent..
@StealthActivist
His dad is a gang banger and I think the victim has several assault charges in the past. This is Newark and a black person with no criminal record is the exception.
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