Michael B. Jordan stars in new police brutality video

Michael B. Jordan and Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover have joined forces for singer and activist Harry Belafonte's new public safety video about police brutality.

The two stars feature in the hard-hitting Against the Wall film, which Belafonte co-produced for his social group Sankofa.org, which is attempting to help raise awareness about preventable violence.

The video, directed by Christopher Renz and Gerard Bush, also features Michael K. Williams and activist Van Jones, and samples excerpts of radio accounts of unarmed black youths being shot and killed by police. The various stars portray the victims.

"The constant vilification of people of color is not new to the American psyche," Belafonte says. "Somehow cell phone video, dash cam video and news media flashing before our very eyes, hour after hour, the murder and victimisation of black and brown bodies has desensitized us.

"By using the faces of those we recognize, familiar faces, we look to re-sensitise the community to really see the problem. The artistic community is responding to the plight of our disenfranchised. We are shining a light and calling out to all to take a look, listen and feel within your heart to take action."

Ironically, Jordan portrayed 22-year-old Oscar Grant III, a victim of police brutality, in the acclaimed 2013 movie Fruitvale Station. African-American Grant was fatally shot by Oakland, California police officer Johannes Mehserle on New Year's Day, 2009. The cop was responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco.

Mehserle shot an unarmed Grant in the back. The incident was captured on multiple digital video and cell phone cameras and the footage went viral, leading to a series of protests in the following days.