The one thing I've always liked about "The Wire" is that it never seemed to try to glorify gang activity.  It told us the story in an honest way we believe because I would think that most watchers of "The Wire" don't live there or live that life to know just how close it is to reality of West Baltimore.  A couple of comments by David Plotz make me wonder if he wants be in that life and to him it is a glorification of life in the hood.  

The first comment was that Slate should have a gang sign.

"Two episodes and counting without Omar! On the upside, Avon Barksdale is back, and flashing that awesome West Baltimore "W" hand signal. We need one of those—a three-finger "S"—for Slate."

and the second one about using words from Marlo -

"how great was the final moment of chitchat between them, when Avon, hungry for details about the street, asks: "What about you, how you been?" And Marlo answers with a shrug: "You know. The game is the game." That's what I'm going to start saying whenever anyone asks me about my job"

The term in the past for a white guy wanting to look and act hood was a "wigger" and that was what came to my mind when reading his comments especially when David (http://www.thegeniusfactory.n­et/images/david.jpg) is a Harvard graduate and the son of an English Professor and a doctor/researcher at the National Institue of Health. Not exactly the crowd that Marlo and Omar would run with and not quite the street credentials David would need to fit in.

How would a real life Marlo act towards David flashing his Slate "S" in West Baltimore?  Would the game just be the game then?  Maybe one day David can break from behind the monitor and fulfill his dream of becoming a stick-up boy running with Omar.  Come to think about it and David might just be Omar's type.

A couple of comments by David Plotz make me wonder if he wants be in that life and to him it is a glorification of life in the hood.

Nope, Plotz is a typical (forgive my interjection of race here, but I can't avoid it) entitled white guy who thinks that anything and everything is there for his amusement and use.