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Alfred Lam
Mrs. Smith
English 11 AP
11 December 2015
Another Day, Another Death
America is faced with a growing problem of of police brutality, a problem that is
intensified by rising racial tensions. This is reflected in the numerous cases of police violence
towards African Americans, the most recent of which being the shooting death of Mario Woods
by five police officers. In his article, Mario Woods' Unnecessary Death, San Francisco
Chronicle journalist Franklin E. Zimring uses logos and syntax to address the frequent, often
fatal encounters between police and their targets.
Zimring begins by presenting the facts of the case: 26-year-old Mario Woods had
displayed a weapon (a knife) and refused to drop it, prompting five police officers to fire at
him at least 15 times. The threat of the knife, according to Zimring, was already very low, with
a total of two knife deaths over six years (2008-13) in the United States when used against
uniformed police officers. He continues to state that as many as 400 of the more than 1000
killings by police each year are not in response to life-threatening assaults, showing the
frequency of the avoidable occurrence. In fact, thanks to tactical training and bulletproof vests,
death rates for police officers had dropped by 75 percent since 1976, in contrast to the meager
9 percent decline in civilian deaths. These statistics, essentially placing Woods threat level as
very low, in addition to the fact that the police both outnumbered and outgunned him, greatly call
into question the reasoning of the police for firing so many unnecessary shots.
In the strongest part of his article, Zimring uses syntax to assert his claim- that five
officers could have arrested and disarmed [Woods] without firing a single shot. He explains that

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each additional wound increases the chances of death, with the death rate with one wound at
21 percent; two wounds, 34 percent; three or four wounds, 56 percent; more than four wounds,
74 percent. Using semicolons and a parallel sentence structure to add rhythm and flow to his
words, Zimring emphasizes the substantial risk that each unnecessary shot presents to Woods. He
goes on to ask whether the second through 15th shots [were] necessary, directly addressing
Chief Greg Suhr, the officer in charge, with a rhetorical question, and supporting his claim by
demonstrating the pointlessness of the additional shots. Zimring proceeds to provide his own
answer to the question, the terrible, awful truth that shooting to kill is accepted police
practice- it's what these police were trained to do, using a dash to reiterate that police training is
flawed and needs reform. In his concluding paragraphs, he shifts to a shorter sentence structure
to make his point, concluding that, although San Francisco once had the lowest rate of police
killings of the 14 biggest cities in the nation, recent events demonstrate that Those days are
gone.
The sharp increase in the number of incidents regarding police brutality is a disturbing
development in the United States. Only one of many police killings in recent years, Woods' case
further illuminates tensions not only with police, but with racial discrimination as well. These
incidents are an indication that reform must happen if America is to be a symbol of the principles
of freedom and equality that it was founded upon.

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Works Cited
Zimring, Franklin E. "Mario Woods' Unnecessary Death." San Francisco Chronicle. N.p., 9 Dec.
2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.