(AP) - Thousands of protesters from civil rights groups marched down New York City's Fifth Avenue in total silence today to demand the city's police department end its "stop-and-frisk" tactics. Members of almost 300 groups on Sunday quietly strolled down Manhattan from Harlem to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's blocked off town house on the Upper East Side where they shouted "no justice, no peace" as they passed by. Critics say the NYPD's practice of stopping, questioning and searching people deemed suspicious is illegal and humiliating to thousands of law-abiding blacks and Hispanics. The NYPD last year stopped more than 630,000 people, mostly black and Hispanic men. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defend the policy, saying the stop-and-frisk program keeps guns off New York streets and helps reduce crime.