Why do totalitarian governments arrest people at night?
Totalitarian governments arrest people at night because it is a mental tactic: a knock on the door in the dark hours of midnight or early morning is far more traumatic and intimidating than one in daylight. This practice is typical of such governments.
Les explains that the human race hasn't changed. Whenever totalitarian governments come on the scene and begin to arrest their people, they almost always choose nighttime—two or three o'clock in the morning. He says this is because it's a mental thing: it's one thing to have somebody knock on your door in the daylight, but it's something else to have somebody knock on your door in the dark hours of midnight or early morning. It's just a traumatic thing. He notes this is typical of totalitarian governments. In the same way, Jesus was arrested at night, evidently right around midnight or a little before, because everything in His arrest and mock trial took place before the early light of dawn. Judas betrayed Him and led the soldiers, and they brought at least a hundred soldiers to arrest Him.