Vox Sentences: Shot by a cop in his own apartment

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A deadly police shooting in Dallas; Tanzania’s president comes out against birth control.

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The shooting of Botham Jean raises many questions

Ryan Tarinelli/AP

• The case against a Dallas police officer who shot a man in his own home may be sent to a grand jury. The grand jury would decide whether to issue charges more severe than manslaughter. [Dallas Observer / Stephen Young]
• Police officer Amber Guyger fatally shot her neighbor, Botham Jean, when she allegedly mistook his apartment for her own and treated him as an intruder who was threatening her life. She called 911 and says she realized she had made a mistake once she turned the lights on. [CNN / Keith Allen and Joe Sterling]
• In the wake of the shooting, Guyger posted a $300,000 bond after she was arrested and charged with manslaughter. [CBS Dallas]
• Guyger now claims that Jean ignored her “verbal commands” and that the apartment door was ajar. But residents say they heard Guyger knocking on the door and saying, “Let me in.” [HuffPost / Doha Madani]
• The ways the Texas Rangers, the state’s head law enforcement agency, have handled the case so far have sparked concerns about how Guyger will be treated and prosecuted. It took a “spirited debate” with Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson for the Rangers to arrest Guyger, who was then allowed to turn herself in at a rural jail far from Dallas. [NYT / Sarah Mervosh and Matthew Haag]
• Guyger says the entire incident was a tragic accident. But Jean’s family, civil rights lawyers, and protesters who have gathered outside of Dallas Police Department headquarters don’t believe her. [Washington Post / Kristine Phillips and Deanna Paul]
• Further questions have also been raised about whether the shooting had to do with race, as Jean was black and Guyger is white. [AP / Ryan Tarinelli]

Tanzania’s president says citizens should stop using birth control

• Tanzanian President John Magufuli said on Saturday that women should “now give up contraceptive methods” in order to boost the country’s population. He said those who opt for family planning methods are “lazy” and “do not want to work hard to feed a large family.” [Al Jazeera]
• Magufuli’s comments are in response to European family planning policies and what he says are, as a result, declining populations. He said that foreigners encouraging Tanzanians to use birth control have “sinister motives.” [CNN / Stephanie Busari]
• For now, the president shows no signs of acting on his remarks and rescinding a family planning policy that the country adopted in 1976, though he made similar comments in 2016, after Tanzania launched free primary and secondary education. [The Citizen]
• Tanzania has some of the highest birthrates in the world: an average of five children per woman. And 49 percent of its 53 million residents live on less than $2 a day. [BBC]

Miscellaneous

• New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon tried to relate to New Yorkers by sharing her deli order: lox and cream cheese with capers … on a cinnamon-raisin bagel. We need not explain why the attempt backfired. [NY Post / Joe Tacopino]
• Actress Olivia Munn says she felt “iced out” by her male co-stars on her movie Predator after she spoke out publicly against the casting of Steven Wilder Striegel, who was recently revealed to be a registered sex offender. [BuzzFeed / Ellie Bate]
• Some scientists going against the grain now say that Pluto has “most definitely” always been a planet. [CNN / Doug Criss]
• Facebook is trying to create an artificial intelligence program that can read and transcribe text that is overlaid on its photos. The program has the potential to identify and rid the site of offensive memes, though no one really knows how co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will use it. [The Verge / Jacob Kastrenakes]

Verbatim

“I am here giving you the unfiltered truth of my soul.” [Alex Jones in an in-depth interview with the New York Times]

Watch this: Every Serena Williams win comes with a side of racism and sexism

Serena Williams is widely regarded as the best female tennis player of all time. But her career has been followed by severe racism and sexism that taps into stereotypes about black women. [YouTube / Christophe Haubursin and Jenée Desmond-Harris]

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