Graffiti on the county courthouse in Portland: “Until the police & ICE are abolished, we will burn this city down piece by piece.” #PortlandRiots #antifa pic.twitter.com/riUQ2cK56m

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 26, 2020

On Wednesday night, Mayor Ted Wheeler spoke at one of the protests for the first time. He was heckled by the crowd and a group projected a list of demands on the front of the Justice Center.

“Theodore, fancy seeing you here. These are our demands,” the statement read. It called for defunding the Portland Police Bureau by at least 50 percent, freeing all protesters from jail, kicking federal law enforcement out, and Wheeler’s resignation.

Despite the radical requests, some took relief because it meant there was something to negotiate on — a possible path to ending seven weeks of violent protests. But the Youth Liberation Front, who led the crowd in shouting expletives at the mayor, didn’t agree.

“What is this ‘defund at least 50%’ s- -t, we’re trying to abolish the police here,” they quickly tweeted out.

And that’s what people need to know about Antifa. They don’t make demands because that’s working within “the system.” Their unambiguous goal is to destroy all American institutions and then the country itself. When they spray-paint or shout, “Burn it down,” they really mean it.

The Antifa ideology propagated in extremist zines, booklets and Web sites say the US is so fundamentally wicked that no amount of reform can fix it — it must be abolished. They see law enforcement and military as the bulwark between them and their goal.

The daily riots function to drain the city of resources and to weaken the morale of law enforcement and public officials. It’s working.