A majority of African Americans across the nation in a recent survey believe that when it comes to Blacks getting true justice, the U.S. falls way short.

The results are part of a study completed this week by BlackPlanet.com, an online social network for African American, made up of 12.4 million registered members.

In the study, 82 percent of 398 members polled responded that they do not believe the U.S. justice system treats African Americans fairly.

Respondents to the study also gave their opinions about racial profiling. An overwhelming 70 percent questioned said that they believe racial profiling is just as prevalent in the U.S. today as it was 20 years ago. At least 74 percent said they believe they were victims of racial profiling within the last, and 37 percent said they were profiled within the past six months.

Omar Wasow, co-founder of New York City-based BlackPlanet.com, told the Defender Thursday that his social network decided to do the study in wake of three recent controversial events that have happened between Blacks and police in his state.

In November, New York police shot and killed 23-year-old Sean Bell after firing into his vehicle at least 50 times the night before he was to have gotten married. Last week, police bullets injured at least two other Black males in the city.

"There have been two incidents in New York that are provocative to say the least in regards to police shootings," Wasow said. "We thought it would be good to get a broad perspective of the African American perspective on these shootings and the American justice system as a whole.

"One thing that jumps out is that 82 percent of those surveyed feel that the American system is unfair to Blacks, but those feeling are there during a time of such a high profile cases."

In addition, Wasow said subjects polled in various cities throughout the nation think their city is the worst when it comes to police and excessive force.

Of those responding to the poll, 8 percent said Chicago had the worst police brutality problem; 18 percent each said Los Angeles and New York had the worst problems; Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Cincinnati fell into the 8 percent or less bracket for worst problems with police.

Hal Baskin, an Englewood-based community activist, told the Defender Thursday that he is not surprised by the poll results.

"I concur with those particular stats," he said. "If someone interviewed me I would answer the same way. It's a lot worst in the African American community because there are no loud voices being raised in the Black community."

"I am surprised that there hasn't been a race riot in this country since Rodney King," Baskin continued. "One thing is that activism is winding down and no one really wants to give the support to go out and fight the battles. Many want activists to go out and fight the battles for them and sit at home and reap the rewards. I challenge people to come out in increased numbers - intelligent numbers - not ignorant numbers. This issue comes out to the forefront when people come out in intelligent numbers."

Wasow said the disgruntled people polled are a reflection of events going on in their world today.

"I think it's important to distinguish the criticism of the justice system from the high profile cases today," Wasow said. "We asked people to compare racial profiling to 20 years ago, and there was a lot of pessimistic. But if you asked them if it is better than say 50 years ago, they would probably say that it is much better."

BlackPlanet.com polled 398 people through mainly email surveys.

Half of those surveyed stated that they feared for their physical safety when they were pulled over by a police officer at night. The statistic was regardless of the police officer being Black or white.

"The issue of the African American community and police go far beyond racial politics," Wasow said.

BlackPlanet.com is part of Community Connect, the largest niche social networking company in the nation with more than 16 million members. BlackPlanet.com has about 287,469 subscribed members in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. The margin of error in the poll is +4.9 percent.