To many left wing individuals antifa just means anti fascist rather than referring to a specific group of people.

I'm sorry, but I hate when people act like this. The people who go out with these banners and flags fucking shit up clearly have similar political ideas. If you want to say you're anti-fascist, just say you're anti-fascist. If you want to identify with the antifa moniker to sum up your beliefs, and a bunch of other people who also go by antifa start doing shit like this, then you just need to start calling yourself an anti-fascist if you don't want to be associated with their actions. It shouldn't be a big deal if antifa literally "just means anti fascist". All you'd be sacrificing is the time it takes to pronounce one more syllable.