Delusional NYC Democrat who says subway crime is just 'in people's head' earns $400k and 'never takes the train'

New York City's public transit boss who insists subway crime is 'in people's heads' earns $400,000-a-year and has a chauffeur.  

The MTA's chairman Janno Lieber made the provocative claims in a Bloomberg interview on Monday.

And now critics have focused on his privilege, with former mayoral candidate and public safety campaigner Curtis Sliwa insisting Lieber 'NEVER uses the subway.' 

MTA officials have insisted that Lieber does use the subway to travel between his his $2.2 million Brooklyn home and his FiDi office. But they also admitted that he sometimes uses a chauffeur. 

Lieber's OMNY account shows he 'tapped in' to the MTA system 600 times over a 12-month period ending on April 30 according to transit officials, Newsday reports.

He stated that subway crime fell by 12.5 percent last year compared to 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.

'The overall stats are positive,' Lieber insisted. 'Some of these high-profile incidents, you know, terrible attacks have gotten in people's heads and made the whole system feel unsafe.'

His comments come just weeks after Debrina Kawam, 57, was lit on fire and burned to death on a subway car as she slept.

The horrific murder is just one of a series of high-profile incidents which have left New Yorkers feeling unsafe while using the Big Apple's underground transit system.

Last week, Joseph Lynskey, 45, narrowly survive after he was shoved onto subway tracks as approached by a random attacker. 

Meanwhile, two men were stabbed in separate attacks on the subway on New Year's Day. 

Despite Lieber's insistence, an analysis of NYPD data by the New York Post shows that the 10 murders on the subway last year were a decade-long high.

Meanwhile, the 579 felony assaults also represented a slight increase on last year's figures according to preliminary data.

However, an 18 percent drop in robberies could help explain the reduction in major crimes. 

The Transport Workers Union was among those to blast Lieber's comments.

'Total BS. This MTA fraudster ignores the fact that violent crime is soaring. Felony assaults were up 51.6% and murders were up 233% last year compared to 2019 (January through 12/29).

'Such # are published in the MTA's own committee books. Fire this GOBS***E!,' the union wrote.

The group's boss John Samuelsen, added in his own post that: 'If CEO Janno Lieber was routinely assaulted like hundreds of @transportworker members have been under his tenure, or shoved in front of an oncoming train, or lit on fire by a crazed lunatic, he'd be far less snarky and indifferent to the tribulations of working New Yorkers.'

The revelations came amid the bitter fight over the $9-a-day congestion charge Lieber has brought in. 

New York Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Anthony D'Esposito co-sponsored a bill to revoke Lieber's access to a government car in protest at his policy.

However, subway violence has New Yorkers so shaken that the vigilante group Guardian Angels has resumed its patrols.

The recent incidents have also seen renewed calls to install guardrails at platforms similar to those seen in other countries.

However, Lieber stated that this is currently not a priority for the network which will in stead be targeting fare-dodgers.

'We put a billion dollars in our new capital program since fare evasion and this whole phenomenon has definitely accelerated post-COVID,' he said.

'So, we are going to start to replace all these turnstiles, which worked when I was a kid, but clearly are ineffective now for in the era that we're living in.' 

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch meanwhile has pledged 200 extra cops to help reassure subway passengers and hinted there could be more to come.

'We still must do more because people don’t feel safe in our subways,' she said.

DailyMail.com has contacted the MTA for comment.