Body camera video shows Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant's arrest after Calumet Park traffic stop

The mayor of south suburban Robbins was arrested after a traffic stop last week in nearby Calumet Park, and he claims officers violated his civil rights. 

Body camera video obtained exclusively by CBS News Chicago shows the bizarre interaction between Robbins Mayor Darren  Bryant and the officers who pulled him over.

Bryant has said he took video of the encounter himself, and initially agreed to sit down for an interview, but after CBS News Chicago police body camera footage, an email from the mayor said that plan changed.

At 1:10 a.m. last Friday, Bryant was behind the wheel of a white sedan when Calumet Park police pulled him over for making an illegal turn.

When officers came up to his car, he cracked the back window.

Body camera footage shows officers asked for his driver's license and insurance.

Bryant later rolled down the front window and asked officers, "What's the problem, sir?"

"I'll tell you when I get your driver's license and insurance," an officer said.

After being asked multiple times, Bryant did not hand over his license or proof of insurance.

"You can go for either a verbal warning, or just a written ticket, or you can be arrested," an officer said before asking him to step out of the car.

Bryant refused and asked a total of 15 times why he was pulled over before police pulled him from the vehicle and placed him under arrest. During that interaction, police asked him 10 times to provide his license and insurance, but he did not.

"You're being arrested for obstructing and resisting," an officer told Bryant.

"You don't know who you're arresting right now," Bryant said after he was handcuffed.

Attorneys for Calumet City said, without his license, police didn't know who Bryant was.

"This is a grown man who's the mayor of a municipality that has a fire department, a police department," Calumet Park village attorney Felicia Frazier said. "It also is just disturbing that you have a mayor of a municipality that, instead of if he really felt as if something wasn't right with the stop, the appropriate place to take that up is in court."

Should the officers have told Bryant why he was being pulled over?

"It would have been nice to tell him. I think most officers do tell you why you're being pulled over, but they don't have to," said Calumet Park village attorney Burt Odelson.

In a letter to Calumet Park, the Robbins village attorney accused officers of "unprofessional, unconstitutional and completely outrageous" conduct, alleging Bryant was arrested for "driving while black" and was charged "under completely false pretenses."

Frazier said the claim that Bryant was pulled over because he's Black "is an insult."

"Calumet Park is predominantly an African American community. The mayor is African American, the board of trustees are African American," she said, adding that the officers who pulled Bryant over also are Black. "So that was an absurd accusation."

In a statement, Bryant claimed Calumet Park police officers violated his civil rights, adding "All I had done at that point was repeatedly ask why I was being pulled over, which is every citizen's right to know."

But law enforcement experts said, while police telling a driver why they've been pulled over is a courtesy, it's not legally required.