YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jamael Tito Brown condemned a post on the city firefighters union’s Facebook page as “the spewing of vile, racist and dangerous language” about fire Chief Barry Finley.

“It was a vicious exchange,” Brown said Friday, adding that he’s spoken to Law Director Jeff Limbian and police Chief Robin Lees about Finley filing criminal charges.

Earlier this week, a woman wrote on the Youngstown Professional Fire Fighters Local 312 Facebook page — in an exchange with someone who identified themselves as fire Capt. John Thomas — that “with all that is going on, we don’t need petty bulls—… do the job wisely or boot him out!!! Drag his a– on the back of one of your trucks!!!”

Thomas responded: “Who are you talking about?”

The woman responded: “Your chief.”

Thomas wrote: “I thought that’s what you meant but I wasn’t sure.”

Brown said Friday: “Where hate is delivered as a siren song for dangerous and destructive behavior, this language cannot go unchallenged. Hate and threats of violence delivered under the mantle of free speech must be addressed.”

He added: “We will be vigilant. We will take the appropriate action to protect all people in this community from this type of shameful behavior.”

An attempt by The Vindicator to reach the woman on Friday and to verify the name posted for her on the Facebook comments was not successful.

Brown and Finley are African American. Brown said the comments were “racist” and that Thomas should have responded with condemnation rather than just asking to whom the woman was referring. He also said Finley has had to deal with racism since he was appointed as fire chief more than two years ago.

Charlie Smith, the firefighters union president, posted on the union’s Facebook page Wednesday that the union “would like to extend our deepest apologies for a comment that was written by an outside entity on our public Facebook page this week. (The union) wants to make it extremely clear that in no way do we condone any hateful, racist or inappropriate commentary or discussion, especially on our Facebook page.”

Also, Smith wrote that after the post was brought to its attention of its executive board, the post was “immediately removed” and the union “does not condone this kind of behavior.”