ROXBURY - Anti-ICE protesters shut down Tuesday's council meeting, turning town hall into a stage for a half-hour demonstration.

A chant quickly broke out among most of the 80 or so people in the room.

"What do we want?" was the question.

"ICE out" was the answer.

"When do we want it?"

"Now."

Then, there was:

"No action. No peace."

The "action" was a call for the township to be more aggressive in fighting a proposed ICE detention center off Route 46 in this normally-Republican Morris County town.

Finally, Mathew Holland, the police chief, came to the front of the room to essentially say:

"The party's over, time to go home."

The council, he said, had cancelled the meeting.

Everyone left.

Tuesday night's drama was yet another chapter in a saga that began 11 months ago with a Washington Post story about the federal government's plan for an ICE center in an unused warehouse in the western part of town.

The town and state joined hands and went to court to stop it. The feds' plan is officially on hold pending an environmental review, but it's not that cut and dry., ICE has admitted using the parking lot to "process" detainees in seeming violation of a court order.

More recently, there was a report that the feds have signed a $31.8 million contract with a private party to convert the warehouse into a detention center.

Keep in mind that the township is suing to stop the plan. Still, anti-ICE protesters, who are a steady presence at council meetings, contend that the council is not doing enough - or even that it secretly supports ICE.

With the backdrop, Tuesday's meeting began. The council normally holds two public sessions. The first is for township business only; the second is for everything else.

That's when trouble began.

Activist Ben Dziobek began speaking during the first public session about ICE. He was ruled out of order by the mayor.

But he continued.

Eventually, he was ruled out of order again. This time for exceeding the council's three-minute time limit. He continued to speak.

The council quickly called a recess and left the dais, prompting the aforementioned demonstration.

Cries of "cowards" were heard as they departed.

As the demonstration ensued, about five police officers stood guard in front of the empty dais. There were no confrontations with police, who candidly showed a great deal of patience and tolerance with the demonstrators.

Amid the chants and shouts were some prescient observations.

One was that elected officials should understand the consequences of not listening to the people - and fighting ICE.  After all, just look at last week's election.

A reasonable point to be sure.

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. lost Roxbury, a rather stunning turnaround in a place Republicans used to win easily.

How future council meetings are handled is now an open question.

One protester was also looking ahead. She said, a bit ominously, that if the evening's demonstration seemed out of line, just wait to see what happens if the Roxbury ICE center opens.

Guess that's a warning.