Ya know, if we go strictly by what we see in the original trilogy, asides from an extreme overreaction the Empire just isn't shown to be as bad and evil as people say.
The Rebel Alliance? Do you have any idea how many innocent contractors and laborers they killed when they blew up the Death Stars? Were the single moms working in the cafeterias evil and deserving of that? Were the
@Revoltingest building the second one really that bad? Well, in that case maybe but the MASH units on standby?
At least the Empire had some funny guys.