Why won't the BT be released?

I know there's a BT thread, but I wanted to ask a more general question. Why do you think the tapes haven't been released? I know they said out of fear of copycats, but holding back tapes isn't going to prevent this. Definitely not when they released their journals and even given us the BT transcripts.

I've always thought they want to keep the illusion that these boys were evil and there's nothing else to it. I think the tapes humanize them, especially if the parts about Eric crying and showing remorse are indeed true.

Because JeffCo is incompetent. It's a miracle we have the transcripts of the tapes (thank you, media reporters/people kind enough to note what was said/done on those) and an even bigger miracle that we have the current heap of evidence available in the first place.

They will always say it's out of a fear of copycats. Always. What I really think is that those transcripts don't show the full tapes, that the image of leader-follower doesn't hold up in the light of those tapes, and that the tapes showcase just how much they got away with. It's gotta sting JeffCo that they had both of these kids in diversion (and Eric in previous trouble apart from this) and never noticed a single thing that would've led to the massacre. I think the non-release is done out of spite/shame and an urge to keep the commonly accepted theory believed by the general public as much as it is done because they're actually worried about copycats.  

There's some great points addressed in this thread.

As we have discussed before the transcripts we have do not appear to match up to the supposed running times of the tapes. This is something I firmly believe in and i feel this is one of the main reasons why they will not release the tapes. The Basement Tapes allegedly run for around 3 hours in total (sorry if i'm off on this i don't have my notes to hand) Even if you read the text from the transcripts out loud it doesn't take that long to read. Unless of course Eric and Dylan were pausing for great lengths of time between each sentence which i highly doubt.
I know to some it may sound a little far fetched or boarding on "conspiracy theory" but i believe that there is something on those tapes that they do not want us to hear or see. It could be something completely innocent but i have a feeling it's not. That then obviously raises the question what are we not allowed to hear / see? The possibilities are endless.
Even if the tapes were released, we could then have a "basement tape round 2" type of situation. Where the tapes or portions of the tapes are released, we are told they are in their full format but the running times do not match up to the originally quoted times. So we still cannot view them in their entirety.

I do find it odd though that every account we have of the tapes is very similar, you'd think parents of the victims or certainly the Brown family would have complained had they not seen the tapes in their full format. Also if something particularly disturbing, graphic, shocking, controversial etc was said or done on the tapes you'd think that we'd have heard about it by now. Unless of course the tapes were never shown to anyone in their original full format and there was some kind of legal document in place preventing anyone from speaking about it. I know that sounds a little far fetched but after studying Columbine for such a long time nothing would surprise me anymore.

I know the copycat theory is usually viewed as some kind of bad excuse, but to an extent i can understand this theory. I don't believe this is the one and only reason to not release the tapes, as we know there have been other school shootings since Columbine where the shooter had identified with Eric and/or Dylan. If there was more video footage available of the two boys then perhaps another would-be school shooter may use the tapes as further inspiration for their own attack. All it would take is for one more school shooting to happen where the shooter makes a direct reference, or seems to take inspiration from something on the basement tapes and JeffCo would probably have all kinds of issues.

I think there are many reasons why the tapes are " locked away ".
Eric and Dylan had a lot of friends and a lot of people honestly liked Eric and Dylan.
Also ,on the other side, Eric and Dylan hated a lot of people. 
E/D may have named people on the tapes just to spite them and maybe incriminate them.
If anyone has been " named " by E/D simply to make them look bad and attract negative attention ,
perhaps locking up the tapes is a good thing ( especially if it protects innocent people )
That's just one reason out of a dozen or so.

rik75 wrote:

I think there are many reasons why the tapes are " locked away ".
Eric and Dylan had a lot of friends and a lot of people honestly liked Eric and Dylan.
Also ,on the other side, Eric and Dylan hated a lot of people. 
E/D may have named people on the tapes just to spite them and maybe incriminate them.
If anyone has been " named " by E/D simply to make them look bad and attract negative attention ,
perhaps locking up the tapes is a good thing ( especially if it protects innocent people )
That's just one reason out of a dozen or so.

No doubt.  However, specific names could be dubbed out. Along the same lines as how the faces of Eric V and Mike V were blotted out in E & D's released video production tapes.

InFiNiNcEX5 wrote:

rik75 wrote:

I think there are many reasons why the tapes are " locked away ".
Eric and Dylan had a lot of friends and a lot of people honestly liked Eric and Dylan.
Also ,on the other side, Eric and Dylan hated a lot of people. 
E/D may have named people on the tapes just to spite them and maybe incriminate them.
If anyone has been " named " by E/D simply to make them look bad and attract negative attention ,
perhaps locking up the tapes is a good thing ( especially if it protects innocent people )
That's just one reason out of a dozen or so.

No doubt.  However, specific names could be dubbed out. Along the same lines as how the faces of Eric V and Mike V were blotted out in E & D's released video production tapes.

Yes i agree. But ,if the tapes were released today and they were heavily edited , dubbed out and censored ,i think that would create many questions and more controversy. The public ( including myself ) want to see those tapes completely untouched and totally free of any kind of censorship or editing.

I actually wouldn't mind them bleeping out the names. What matters to me is the interaction of the two -- and you can see that just fine with or without name removal. It's the only censorship that would make sense.

thedragonrampant wrote:

I actually wouldn't mind them bleeping out the names. What matters to me is the interaction of the two -- and you can see that just fine with or without name removal. It's the only censorship that would make sense.

I agree, I think it's pretty obvious that LE would redact peoples names if they ever released the tapes, it would be irresponsible not to in my opinion. The only other discussion that could be redacted / bleeped out would be if Eric and Dylan speak specifically about how they made their bombs, although this would answer a lot of questions many have about how they constructed the bombs and what they expected to happen. I'd certainly like to know for sure what they thought would happen. Likewise, even though we know quite a bit about how they managed to acquire weapons / ammunition, I feel like if they provided some kind of "how to" list this could also be something that may be redacted.

Good topic.

I think the boys made statements directly about the JC Sheriff's office and specifically Tim Walsh. They may also have mentioned more specific times and places where they'd previously let off pipe-bombs and/or caused other property damage.