Dozens of Washington, DC protested outside the Metropolitan Police Department and the DC federal courthouse on Friday as city officials sued to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the police department in the nation's capital.

The Trump administration escalated its intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal official as the new emergency head of the department.

Washington’s police chief said Trump’s move would threaten law and order by upending the command structure. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” Chief Pamela Smith said in a court filing.

The legal battle playing out Friday showed the escalating tensions in a mostly Democratic city that now has its police department under the control of the Republican presidential administration that exists in its midst. Trump’s takeover of the police department is historic yet had played out with a slow ramp-up in federal law enforcement officials and National Guard troops to start the week.