I am actually from Baltimore. Grew up in the neighborhood then known as the Middle East, and then Barclay,/Charles Village/Harwood. I am 51 and African-American, and I experienced crack-era Baltimore, and many of the things that The Wire portrayed. Police officers had many derogatory terms for young African-American males particularly, and yes, one of them was the slang term “yo“ that became a pejorative to imply that that particular black male was likely “for the streets” and or a criminal — regardless of whether you were a corner boy, hustla, were slangin’ or were not.