O'Neil was hooted from the stage at a rally for racial harmony in June 1992 after he refused to apologize for racially inflammatory remarks he made about the city's growing Vietnamese community during the annual Dorchester Day parade. In comments to a police official that were captured on camera by a local television station, O'Neil had said: "I just passed up there. I thought I was in Saigon, for Chrissakes ... It makes you sick, for Chrissakes . . . I told them I'd come back with the checks tomorrow."