Mayor LaToya Cantrell addressed questions on the city's rising murder rate, her travel and questions around it and more topics Tuesday. A defiant Mayor LaToya Cantrell pushed back against shots her city and her administration have taken in recent weeks on myriad topics following a construction update news conference Tuesday. Cantrell said she disagreed with New Orleans being labeled as the Murder Capital of the World though she did not say what about the numbers that resulted in that label were incorrect. “I do not embrace that at all,” said Cantrell when asked directly about recent national and local news articles on the topic. “(It) isn’t based on what’s happening on the ground. We have experienced an uptick in crime.” Cantrell went on to emphasize that most crimes were not random, but the result of disputes between people who know one another, extended family members and mental health issues along with people settling disputes with guns.