They knew full well that resistance or flight was an invitation to their guards to kill them, and that this invitation was likely to be promptly accepted.
In the investigation of crime the members of this organization arrested persons on suspicion and compelled them to make revelations, true or false.

Eye-witnesses to the commission of crime were not needed in the Spanish courts of that day.

The confession of an accused person secured his conviction, even though not made in the presence of a judge.

Indirect and hearsay evidence were accepted, and such things as writs of habeas corpus and the plea of double jeopardy were unknown in Spanish procedure.
The _guardia civil_ could rearrest individuals and again charge them with crimes of which they had already been acquitted.

I have been assured by reliable Filipino witnesses that it was common during the latter days of Spanish sovereignty for persons who had made themselves obnoxious to the government to be invited by non-commissioned officers to take a walk, which was followed either by their complete disappearance or by the subsequent discovery of their dead bodies.
It naturally resulted that the members of the _guardia civil_ were regarded with detestation and terror by the people, but their power was so absolute that protest rarely became public.