the.com/lawman
A badge that turns one person's opinion into the whole town's bedtime.
means A law enforcement officer, especially a sheriff or marshal in the rugged American frontier sense.
from Old English lagu (law, from Norse) welded to man; popularized in the 1800s American West, where the nearest judge was often a saddle and a stern look away.
Frontier realityMany wore badges between stints as outlaws.
Old Norse rootLaw itself was a Viking import to English.
Title creepMarshal, sheriff, deputy all fold under it.