[dingbat]

i thought it was brilliant at an even more meta level: McNulty made up a fictional but fact-based story about a series of killings, with a dramatic flourish of "the Red Ribbon Killer", in order to get resources and attention on what was happening in his city, even if it was at the cost of exploiting real individual suffering.

then, consider what the writers of the Wire did throughout the entire series, especially in the previous season's story arc about the "Nailgun" serial killings of Marlo's enforcers Chris and Snoop in the city's vacant buildings.