Residents in one Washington, D.C., neighborhood lined up Wednesday to protest the increased police presence after the White House said the number of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital would ramp up and federal officers would be the streets around the clock.

After law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor, hecklers shouted, “Go home, fascists” and other insults.

Some protesters stood at the intersection before the checkpoint and urged drivers to turn away from it.

The action intensified a few days after President Donald Trump's unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the city's police department for at least a month.

The city's Democratic mayor walked a political tightrope, referring to the takeover as an “authoritarian push” at one point and later framing the infusion of officers as boost to public safety, though one with few specific barometers for success.

The Republican president has said crime in the city was at emergency levels that only such federal intervention could fix — even as District of Columbia leaders pointed to statistics showing violent crime at a 30-year low after a sharp rise two years ago.

For two days, small groups of federal officers have been visible in scattered areas of the city.

But a significant increase was expected Wednesday at the Guard's armory and troops were expected to start doing more missions in Washington on Thursday, according to a Guard spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the planning process.

AP video by Alanna Durkin Richer & Pablo Monsivais