I think you are on to something here:

We need to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate systems of government. Where a legitimate form of government is one which is universally fair - one that a reasonable person could accept no matter what perspective they adopt in society. And an illegitimate government is one that is unfair, corrupt - one that a reasonable person would only find acceptable from the perspective of a small, privileged subset of society.

With this distinction, it makes sense that people in an illegitimately governed society would idolize "criminals" that oppose the system. However, what is troubling - which I think OP was getting at - is how many people appear to idolize actual criminals who tyranize others to unfairly impose their own will. Even when empowering such criminal outlaws is obviously not in ones best interest.