MEDFORD — Law-and-order took a beating in Medford Saturday night as a furious mob swarmed the Hyatt Place hotel, screaming outside the hotel about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who dared to rent a room.

For more than an hour, about 150 agitators pounded drums, screamed into megaphones, waved homemade signs, and sang songs outside the hotel, all because federal agents — the very people tasked with catching dangerous fugitives and deporting criminals — were allegedly inside. Guests looking for a quiet night’s stay were instead treated to a circus of rage as organizers tried to intimidate ICE out of town.

What the protesters didn’t mention? ICE has spent the last month hauling in some of the worst predators in Massachusetts. Just days ago, federal officers arrested Javier Zuniga, a Mexican national convicted of raping a child and indecent assault on a child under 14. Another sweep, Operation Patriot 2.0, netted rapists, child abusers, and drug traffickers — the “worst of the worst,” according to DHS. In August, ICE busted a six-member burglary crew from Romania that had been terrorizing local neighborhoods. And in May, nearly 1,500 illegal alien offenders were rounded up statewide, many with long rap sheets of violent crimes.

Yet activists would rather chase the agents than confront the criminals. The tantrum followed a lawful immigration arrest in East Somerville earlier that day, but agitators spun it into a “community defense” mission. In reality, it was a made-for-Instagram spectacle designed to vilify federal officers. Families in the area, already rattled by rising crime and high rents, were forced to watch their neighborhood turned into a stage for open hostility against law enforcement.

While protesters screamed about “abolition,” ICE was busy doing its job — removing people who broke U.S. immigration law. Critics warn that chasing agents from hotels won’t stop crime; it only emboldens predators who slip through the cracks.

In the end, the mob dispersed, but the message was clear: when it comes to choosing between federal law and street theater, too many in Massachusetts are siding with the mob.