BY DEEPTI HAJELA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- Gay rights groups are speaking out in support of a silent march being held later this month to protest the New York Police Department's street stop policy.
Representatives from groups including Empire State Pride Agenda and Human Rights Campaign joined the Rev. Al Sharpton and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Benjamin Todd Jealous at an event Tuesday announcing they'd take part in the June 17 march.
The event was held at the Stonewall Inn, a bar where patrons' defiance of police in a 1969 raid was a watershed moment in the gay rights movement.
The police department last year stopped more than 600,000 people, mostly black and Hispanic men. Half were frisked, and about 80 percent were never arrested.
The police department says it's necessary. Critics say it's racial profiling.
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