Interviewer: Can soldiers decide what the arrest will look like?

 

Soldier: Really, really. It could look like two completely different pictures. Like, an arrest is an arrest [but] it can be a polite, reasonable thing that happens or it can be a barbaric incident, regardless of the situation. 

 

Interviewer: What are the variables? What would turn it into one or the other?

Soldier: The mood. In riots, in arrests, or various other kinds of entries into homes, it’s a question of mood, how the commander shows up, whether he’s in a combative mood that day or shows up in a good mood. It changes the picture for everyone taking part in the arrest. 

 

Interviewer: And how does that apply in practice?

 

Soldier: In the house he can decide to turn everything upside down without us searching for anything. Go into a room: take everything out of the closet. 

 

Interviewer: Are you saying that because it happened? 

 

Soldier: Yes, yes, sure, sure. There was an arrest when we went into a home, we arrived in a very combative mood, right away neutralize the father, get rid of the mother, their son wasn’t at home, he probably went to pray or something.