The news media loves anniversaries. If it’s the first or a round figure, like 10, that’s even better. That’s why we’ve seen so many stories on the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles rebellion and the first anniversary of a similar uproar in Cincinnati. But we must move beyond artificial time markers.

In its reflective mode, the media has done a job of comparing the past with the present. But it has not spent enough attention exposing the root cause of the uprisings. In Los Angeles, the community reaction followed the acquittal of four White police officers for beating Rodney King. Although the savage beating was captured on videotape, we were asked not to believe our eyes.

In Cincinnati, it was a different city but a similar script. Again, the outbreak was prompted by a police action, in this case, the shooting of an unarmed Black man. The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that it had reached an agreement with the City of Cincinnati on how to improve the police department.

Long before the incidents in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Rights, known as the Kerner Commission, issued its findings on the causes of widespread urban unrest during the summer of 1967, unrest that spread to more than 150 cities. In warned that, “Our Nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one, white–separate and unequal.”

As we observe anniversaries–of the 1965 rebellion in Watts, the 1982 outbreak in Los Angeles and the 2001 flames in Cincinnati -- we should remember another finding of the Kerner Commission: Most urban rebellions are ignited by police misbehavior.

The key question is not being addressed in the rush to commemorate, if not celebrate, the passage of time. What happens to cops who misbehave?

In 1992–10 years ago–Gannett News Service decided to seek an answer to that question. Its findings were as startling as the Kerner Commission noting that we were moving toward two separate societies.

The news service examined 100 civil lawsuits that had been filed against police officers in 22 states. In each instance, awards of $100,000 or more were made to victims between 1986 and 1991; the total was nearly $92 million. And what happened to the cops that had cost taxpayers money? Of the 185 officers involved in the cases, no disciplinary action was taken against 160, eight were disciplined and 17 were promoted. In other words, a cop accused of police brutality was two times more likely to get promoted than disciplined.

Five or 10 years from now—or whenever the next anniversary is observed—someone should go back to see what happened to the cops involved in Cincinnati and other communities. We know that subsequent trials sent some Los Angeles cops to jail while acquitting others. The issue is one of providing consistent police accountability.

Most police officers have not been accused of police brutality and the complaints filed tend to name the same officers, which is a clear indication that something is amiss. Even fair-minded cops are being ill-served by some of their fellow officers.

“Police departments like to claim that each high-profile abuse is an aberration, committed by a ‘rogue officer,’” says Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “But these human rights violations persists because the accountability systems are so defective.”

To make the systems effective, Human Rights Watch recommends making federal aid to police departments contingent upon regular reporting of incidents of excessive force, departments establishing a zero tolerance for abuse by its officers, having effective civilian review agencies and hiring special prosecutors to go after abusive police officers.

The police and most African-Americans want the same thing – to rid our communities of crime. However, this effort can’t be successful if the people who are supposed to be protected by police are being mistreated by the very people who are supposed to be protecting them. As they Gannett News Service investigation found, “Taxpayers are penalized more for brutality than the officers responsible for the beatings.”