Is county sheriff a new Joan of Arc?

Recently, she played perhaps the ultimate employment-retention card: She invoked The Almighty in her quest to hang onto her job. She uttered this memorable sentence during public testimony in Redwood City: “God put me here for a reason.” In other words, she is somehow, some way, a local law enforcement version of The Chosen One.

For all practical purposes, and using her own expansive logic, one could reasonably speculate that Corpus seems to see herself as our very own latter-day Joan of Arc, a saintly victim of a warped and grossly unfair system of justice — in fact, a soon-to-be martyr in the holy cause of rescuing and rejuvenating a Sheriff’s Office that is purported to be deeply flawed and out of touch with changing times and priorities on the Peninsula.

Mercifully, it is highly unlikely that Corpus will end up enduring the same awful, fiery fate as the unfortunate young Joan back in the tumultuous 15th century in France. The sheriff, fortunately for all involved, is not expected to be burned at the stake because of her behavior. That would be taking the consequences of her anticipated firing to a grotesque medieval extreme.

Further, we do not envision that an intercession by Pope Leo XIV will be forthcoming anytime soon. He is busy with other more pressing matters at the Vatican. The fate of the unrepentant Corpus, no matter her rather stunning allusion to a higher power, is almost certainly not on the pontiff’s agenda. Amen.

A FOCUS ON PUBLIC SAFETY IN RWC: The recent fatal knife attack at the downtown Redwood City Caltrain depot-Sequoia Station shopping center complex was not just a tragic event that ended in a senseless loss of life. It also put an unfortunate dent in the ongoing efforts to make those adjacent properties safer and more customer-friendly.

It’s no secret that the environment there has been less than totally friendly over time, too many dangerous incidents, too many dicey characters, too many unpleasant police reports.

But public safety activity has been stepped up to the point that the town’s police department is establishing a substation on those premises to better monitor and respond to worrisome circumstances.

No one in authority is pretending that things are rosy in that precinct quite yet. Still, in spite of the deadly stabbing attack, those of us who frequent that transit/commercial hub can vouch for at least a welcome boost to a needed perception of an official attention to safety.

LOSING HOME COURT IS NOT NEW: Some historically unaware fans of the WNBA’s Valkyries are griping that their favorite team cannot use its home floor at the Chase Center in San Francisco for playoff action due to a scheduling conflict.

This is not a new challenge. It’s precisely what happened to the NBA’s Warriors 50 years ago when they were booted from their Oakland Arena digs during the league’s late spring championship run vs. Washington due to an ice show booking.

Golden State, relegated to the Daly City Cow Palace for two games, won the series anyway, sweeping the Bullets (that moniker now changed to the more palatable Wizards) in four games.

By the way, the Valkyries, in their very first season of women’s professional basketball competition, have easily outdrawn those 1975 Warriors on a per-game basis. Quite impressive.

A 110th ANNIVERSARY IS COMING: According to the Burlingame Historical Society, the Studio Shop Gallery is the oldest continuously operating private business in that burg. The enterprise will observe its 110th anniversary with a party Sept. 20, at its current downtown site, 311 Primrose Road. The firm has been owned and operated by the Benson-Martin Family for the past 70 years. Happy birthday.