The mayor of the nation’s reigning murder capital — New Orleans —met with the leader of the country’s former murder capital on Thursday.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray sat down with Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Thursday morning at the Wilson Building, Gray’s public schedule said.
Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Gray, said the two men discussed economic development and crime. D.C. police Chief Cathy Lanier also attended the session, Ribeiro said.
In 2010, New Orleans had more than 49 homicides per 100,000 residents, leading the nation. That year, the District had the seventh-most homicides of any major American city with almost 22 per 100,000 residents.
Although the FBI hasn’t released final statistics for 2011, New Orleans suffered another year of violent crime when the city endured about 200 homicides.
But Washington’s homicide statistics haven’t always been better than those in Louisiana’s largest city. In 1990, the District recorded 472 homicides, a rate of nearly 78 murders per 100,000 residents, claiming the “murder capital” title for much of the early 1990s.
Further reducing the number of homicides in the District has been a oft-cited accomplishment of the Gray administration. The city says homicides fell by nearly 20 percent in 2011.
